Coronavirus contact tracing app planned

State technology will notify users of COVID-19 exposure

The state Department of Health will be making a long-promised COVID-19-exposure notification app available in September, state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday during a webcast press conference.

Based on a system developed by Apple and Google, the app will use Bluetooth technology to notify people who have been in close contact with someone who later tests positive for COVID-19 -- provided both parties are participating in the program.

Close contact means within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes, according to Levine.

"The entire system is anonymous and voluntary," Levine said. "We're committed to protect privacy."

The state is working with a partner, NearForm, Levine said.

When the phones of two app users "meet," the phones exchange a key code, according to the NearForm website.

That code is based on "anonymous identifier beacons," according to information emailed by Apple to the Mirror in April.

If User A from such an encounter becomes infected, he or she notifies the app of that result, according to the NearForm website.

Then A's phone uploads the last 14 days worth of his key contacts to the cloud, according to the Apple information.

If the encounter between Users A and B fulfills the close-contact criteria, User B, whose app periodically downloads the keys for everyone who tests positive for COVID-19 in the region, receives an alert that he or she has been subject to a close contact, but without disclosing the identity of User A or the location where the encounter happened, according to both sources.

The alert to User B suggests that she tap for information about what to do next, according to the Apple email.

The policies governing the app require that it be used only by "an official government public health authority" for COVID-19 tracing, that it needs to ask users' consent, that it gathers only the minimum information needed and that it can't seek permission to access geolocation data, according to the NearForm website.

Bluetooth is a wireless technology that enables the exchange of data between devices over small distances using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the industrial, scientific and medical radio bands, according to an online source.

The app won't substitute for case investigators who interview people who test positive and contact tracers who talk to those they've been in close contact with, but it will help them do their work more completely and efficiently, according to Levine.

"Sometimes it's hard to recount" all the times we have interacted extensively with people in recent days, Levine said.

Sometimes, even when we remember, it won't do any good, as when we're standing in line at a store, she said.

"That's where the app comes in," she said. "(It's) one piece of the puzzle."

Pennsylvania is working with other states to help ensure the system works when people travel, she said.

Before the app becomes available, the state will launch a marketing campaign to encourage people to use it, Levine said.

The more people who do, "the better," she said.

The app will not be used to enforce compliance with COVID-19 isolation orders, she said.

While the department has the legal authority to require isolation when people are infected, "we are finding that most people will do the right thing if they have (COVID-19)," she said.

The state has 375 public health professionals working on case investigations and plans to hire 75 community health nurses to add to the complement, according to a DoH news release.

The state has 1,200 contact tracers -- 250 of whom are still in training -- and hopes eventually to have 3,000, according to Levine and a DoH news release.

DoH partner Insight Global is recruiting contact tracers, tracer supervisors and "care resource managers," both full and part time, according to the news release.

People interested in becoming a tracer can go to the ServPA website, then to Contact Tracing (PA DOH), according to the news release.