COVID-19 exposure notification app WA Notify to end May 11
WA Notify – the state’s COVID-19 exposure notification app – is scheduled to sunset May 11 in tandem with the end of the federal Public Health Emergency.
The smartphone application utilizes Bluetooth technology to anonymously alert users they may have been exposed to someone who recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Since its launch in Nov. 2020, officials say that approximately 235,000 participants confirmed a positive test result in WA Notify, generating more than 2.5 million anonymous exposure notifications, possibly preventing tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases, and saving lives.
User privacy was protected within the app, and no GPS locations or personally identifiable information was collected or stored.
Washington was one of the first states to implement exposure notification technology, and officials note that the state had one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the country, despite also being host to the earliest known domestic case of the virus.
“We’re tremendously proud of what WA Notify was able to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time, and eager to find ways to utilize this life-saving technology again in the future,” said Dr. Bryant Thomas Karras, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Washington State Department of Health. “Much of WA Notify’s success can be attributed to innovative collaboration among public, private, and academic partners including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the University of Washington. We want to thank WA Notify users across the state for using this free, privacy-preserving tool to protect themselves and their communities.”
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) encourages people who test positive for COVID-19 to continue anonymously notifying others via the app through May 11. After that, users will no longer receive notifications that they were near someone who tested positive for the virus.
WA Notify users may receive a notification on their phone alerting them the tool will be disabled. Users will not need to take additional action, although they may uninstall the app if they choose.
Beyond May 11, DOH encourages people who test positive for COVID-19 to tell their close contacts that may have been exposed to the virus.