Public health officials will soon be able to use smartphones for contact tracing without having to build a separate app.
The new system, announced Tuesday by Google and Apple, Inc., according to multiple news reports, is called Exposure Notification Express. Through ENE, public health officials will be able to submit a small configuration file to the two tech giants. Google and Apple will then build a system using those files that phone owners can acquire to see if they have been in the proximity of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Users of the iPhone will be able to know beginning on Tuesday whether local health officials offer an exposure notification system. If it is offered, users will be able to set it up without downloading an app. Android users will have a similar option, but they will have to download an app.
It remains to be seen if notification via smartphones slows the spread of the virus as most governments are not tracking data related to the use of such phones.
Maryland, Nevada, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., will be the first places in the United States to employ the new system.
