Android users will also be alerted when exposure notifications can be found in their state, then will likely be prompted to download a personalized app developed by Google. This functionality will seem in Android 6.0 and higher later this month.
Meanwhile, iOS 13.7 will likely be launched today with the new exposure notification system. The first states on the system will be Maryland, Nevada, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The unprecedented collaboration between Apple and Google was first introduced in April. The interoperable system has been available for public health companies to develop their very own apps on — Virginia launched the first one within the U.S. in August and 5 more states have followed.
The more individuals who opt in, the better for public health. In a press release from Apple and Google, Christophe Fraser, from Oxford University’s department of health mentioned: “We estimate that a well-staffed manual contact tracing workforce combined with 15% uptake could reduce infections by 15% and deaths by 11%.”
Contact tracing — the practice of identifying anyone an contaminated person has interacted with — is vital to a pandemic response. But the U.S. has struggled with it through a lethal combination of overwhelming case loads, slow testing and uncooperative civilians. There is not any federal contact tracing program, even as people can travel freely from state to state. The two dominant makers of smartphone operating systems can’t snap their fingers and create faster testing, responsible self-quarantining and widespread masks sporting, however the hope is that complete exposure tracking can get people to help in one fundamental of public well being with as little friction as possible.
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