COVID Alert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Linux Foundation Public Health Initiative,
- Canadian Digital Service,
- Health Canada
| COVID Alert | |
|---|---|
 | |
Screenshot  | |
| Developer(s) |
|
| Initial release | July 31, 2020 |
| Repository | https://github.com/cds-snc/covid-alert-app |
| Operating system | Android, iOS |
| Size | |
| Standard(s) | Exposure Notification[3] |
| Available in | English, French |
| Type | Digital contact tracing |
| Website | Official website  |
COVID Alert (French: Alerte COVID[4]) was the Exposure Notification service app for the country of Canada. It launched in the province of Ontario on July 31, 2020, and became available in nearly all Canadian provinces by October of that year, excluding Alberta (which continued to use its existing, BlueTrace-based app instead), and British Columbia.
As with all other implementations of EN, it uses Bluetooth to broadcast and receive randomly-generated IDs to and from the smartphones of other COVID Alert users within the user's vicinity. If a user later tests positive for COVID-19, they can choose to anonymously flag their IDs within a specific timeframe, allowing others to be notified of a possible exposure.[5] As with all other EN apps, COVID Alert requires a smartphone with Bluetooth Low Energy support running Android 6.0 "Marshmallow" or iOS 12.5[6] and newer.
Although the COVID Alert app was downloaded over six million times, only roughly 57,000 positive cases had been reported into the system—leading some critics to dismiss it as a failure.[7][8][9] The app was officially discontinued on June 17, 2022.
On June 18, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government would partner with enterprise technology company BlackBerry Limited and ecommerce firm Shopify to develop a voluntary, anonymous contact tracing app to manage the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[10] The app was developed by the COVID Shield project, an open source reference implementation backed by volunteer employees of Shopify and the Linux Foundation Public Health initiative, and the Canadian Digital Service, with BlackBerry providing security guidance.[11][12]
On July 23, after a delay from an originally-anticipated soft launch in early-July, Canadian Digital Service announced that it would begin beta testing the COVID Alert app in Ontario.[13]
The app officially launched on July 31 in Ontario; Trudeau stated that the app does not replace manual contact tracing, and that other Canadian provinces would adopt the app "soon".[5]
On June 17, 2022, COVID Alert was discontinued. Health Canada cited that provinces phasing out widespread PCR testing had limited its use.[14][15] Manitoba had already discontinued the app in March 2022 pursuant to its lifting of public health orders.[16]
