How testing Covid Watch led to the most sophisticated exposure notification app available anywhere– a digital tool capable of fighting the pandemic in more ways than one.
Available now in the App Store and Google Play, the first-ever exposure notification app using an evidence-based dynamic risk model begins a phased rollout at the University of Arizona and distinguishes itself from competing platforms in the process.
Against the backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations nationwide, the start of the school year is quickly approaching — and universities are faced with the high-stakes decision of if and how they are going to bring students back to campus. Many are looking to technology solutions that can help stop the spread of coronavirus and empower communities to return safely to their daily lives. Covid Watch has built one such tool — a fully anonymous exposure notification app that notifies community members of potential COVID-19 exposure while protecting their privacy.
Without social distancing, quarantine, or other measures, a virus like COVID-19 can spread rapidly through the population. COVID-19 spreads most easily between people within close distances via droplets in the air created while coughing, sneezing, or talking. People can become contagious before their symptoms appear, or they may never develop symptoms, so it is possible to transmit the disease without a person realizing they are infected. If the virus is allowed to spread too quickly, it can overwhelm the capacity of healthcare services, resulting in less access to treatment and a higher rate of deaths.
Emergent Ventures awarded Covid Watch $100,000 on Thursday to continue its work on an anonymous exposure alert app that protects privacy while quickly notifying users if they've been in contact with the coronavirus.