Minnesota launches COVID-19 tracking app via mobile devices - Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Mobile device tracking is now available in Minnesota to allow COVID-19 patients to alert close contacts that they may have been exposed to the infectious disease.

Gov. Tim Walz unveiled the COVIDaware MN system Monday afternoon and appealed to Minnesotans to voluntarily use the tracking tool to slow the spread of the pandemic that has caused more than 3,200 deaths and more than 270,000 lab-confirmed infections.

“We are in an unrelenting spike,” said Walz, who called the app “another tool in our toolbox to slow the spread of COVID.”

While the technology has existed for months on Apple and Google mobile platforms, Minnesota leaders hesitated to use it due to privacy concerns and emphasized that COVIDaware neither collects or distributes personal identification to anyone.

Users are identified only by random and rotating ID numbers and can choose whether to anonymously alert recent close contacts of their viral exposure risks.

The app is based on public health research indicating that most transmissions of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 occur when people have spent 15 minutes within 6 feet of one another.

The app uses Bluetooth signal strength between devices as an estimate of whether people were within 6 feet of one another for that amount of time. It does not use GPS.

Only users of the app will be able to anonymously notify one another of exposure risks, and Minnesota IT Services Commissioner Tarek Tomes said the notification will come with only a time range for exposure and won’t provide any location information.

“The premise here is simple yet impactful,” he said. “If communities are willing to adopt the app, use it, report positive test results, and follow health recommendations when notified of exposure, this app can help us return to many of the activities we miss so much and save lives.”

More than a dozen states now use the technology, with many unveiling similar COVID-19 tracking tools in recent weeks. Minnesota is one of multiple states using the app developed by the nonprofit PathCheck Foundation.

North Dakota was an early adopter of the technology last spring, converting an app designed to link fans of North Dakota State Bison football into Care19 Alert.

As in many states, the promise has been hampered by slow uptake. In North Dakota, fewer than 5% of people have used the app. And even among users who end up with COVID-19, some don’t opt to anonymously notify close contacts of their exposure risks.

Adoption has been far broader in Asia and Europe. However, Tomes said a similar app in Colorado gained 1 million users shortly after it was unveiled, and that an Oxford University study showed that as little as 15% adoption in a community can have a positive impact against the pandemic.

To prevent false reports, the app requires users to receive codes from local and state public health contact tracers that verify they received formal positive test results.

Contact tracers have fallen behind in their efforts to interview infected people and identify their close contacts who may have been exposed, because of the overwhelming surge in infection numbers. However, state infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann said they should have time to forward these codes because they can call, e-mail or text the information.

Ehresmann added that the app should help with contact tracing, because people often struggle to remember all of the recent close contacts to whom they could have spread the virus.

“With this exposure app, Minnesotans can anonymously inform people they don’t know that they have been in close contact with about a potential exposure,” Ehresmann said. “The more people use the app ... the more people can be notified that they may have ben exposed.”

State health officials said they would promote the app in communities that are likely to use it, such as college campuses. Tomes said the app works better when used with higher frequency in individual communities, rather than sporadically across the state.

In Minnesota, the first attempt to confront COVID-19 with mobile device technology came from Bloomington-based HealthPartners with an app called SafeDistance. It used a crowdsourcing approach, allowing people to anonymously report when they had respiratory symptoms so that people living nearby could assess their risks.

Uptake was slowed because the app was not made available on Google’s Play Store for Android phones. Developers at the time said they needed an endorsement from the Minnesota Department of Health to provide the app on that platform. State health officials had concerns that users would have a false sense of security if the app showed no illnesses in their immediate areas.

Walz accepted responsibility for any slow rollout of the technology in Minnesota, saying he wanted all security and privacy concerns addressed first so that people would be more comfortable using it.

 

 

November 24, 2020 at 03:07AM
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Minnesota launches COVID-19 tracking app via mobile devices - Minneapolis Star Tribune

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