No virus iphone app available? Apple, Google put virus-tracing tech straight into US phones

Apple and Google are trying to get more US states to adopt their phone-based approach for tracing and curbing the spread of the coronavirus by building more of the required technology directly into phone software.

That will make it much easier for individuals to get the tool on their phone regardless if their local public health agency hasn’t built its own compatible app.

The tech giants on Tuesday launched the next phase of their “exposure notification” system, designed to automatically alert people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus.

Until now, only a handful of US states have built pandemic apps using the tech companies’ framework, which includes seen somewhat wider adoption in Europe and other areas of the world.

States must choose whether they want to allow the Apple-Google system. If indeed they do, iPhone users in those states will automatically be able to opt into the system and never have to download an app. They’ll be prompted with a notification asking if indeed they consent to running the system on their phones.

For people with Android phones, Google will automatically generate an Android software for public health agencies that phone users can then download.

The firms said they expect Maryland, Nevada, Virginia and Washington, DC, to be the first in america to launch the brand new version of their tool. Virginia says almost half of a million of its 8.5 million residents have downloaded its app because the state in early August became the first to launch a customized pandemic iphone app using the Google-Apple framework.

Other states that have since launched COVID-19 software using the Google-Apple model include North Dakota, Wyoming, Alabama and Nevada. The University of Arizona also has one that is expected to eventually go statewide.

Some of the programs don’t work as well once persons travel across state borders, although several coordinating public health agencies is attempting to fix that by establishing a national server.

The technology relies on Bluetooth wireless signals to determine whether a person has spent time near other people who has tested positive for the virus. Both people in this scenario will need to have signed up to utilize the Google-Apple technology. Rather than geographic location, the application relies on proximity. The companies say the application won’t reveal private information either to them or public health officials.

Individuals who receive such proximity alerts will typically be offered testing and health advice to prevent potential future spread of the virus.

Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan, announcing the state’s participation in the Apple-Google system at a press conference Tuesday, said it will help public health officials quicker notify people of potential COVID-19 exposure and enhance existing efforts by health personnel to trace the contacts of infected people.