COVID-19 contact tracing app ABTraceTogether launched by Alberta

Infected people who have the app will be asked to voluntarily upload encrypted data to Alberta Health Services contact tracers. Those contact tracers can then use that information to reach other app users who have had close contact with the infected person and provide guidance for their safety and others.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw called the app “a vital step in preventing further spread of the virus.”

She added, “the faster Alberta Health Services contact tracers can inform exposed people or close contacts, the quicker we will be able to prevent potential outbreaks an ID when Albertans must self-isolate.”

Mobile contact tracing will support the manual contact tracing efforts already underway.

The government says the app was designed with privacy in mind. No geo-location data is collected, encounter data is stored locally on your phone in an encrypted form, and mobile numbers are never revealed to other app users, says the government.

Hinshaw said downloading the app is completely voluntary, and data will not be accessed unless a user provides consent to share their data with AHS.

“The app does not use your phone’s GPS, and does not track the user’s location or contacts. The only information exchanged between user’s phones is a random ID that is not identifiable. Nothing that is identifiable is exchanged,” she said.

The South Zone has reached a dubious milestone, with more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19. There are now 1,033 cases, an increase of 87 in the past 24 hours.

Brooks now has 950 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 78 from Thursday. The previous day’s jump was 109.

There are an even 100 recovered cases in Brooks, up 45 from Thursday. There are 846 active cases and deaths remain at four.

There have been 390 confirmed cases among workers and contractors at JBS in Brooks. At the Cargill meat plant in High River there are 921 confirmed cases.

An outbreak has also been confirmed at the new Amazon warehouse near Calgary. There are five confirmed cases from the facility.

Medicine Hat has 31 cases, 16 active and 15 recovered.

Alberta has 5,573 cases, a jump of 218 since Thursday. Another 198 people have recovered since Thursday, bringing that total to 2,359.

There are now 92 COVID-19 deaths in the province, up three from yesterday.

There are 86 people in hospital, 22 of which are in ICU.

Hinshaw shared some key findings in the past two months about COVID-19. She highlighted that the virus does not discriminate by age, and that the most frequent symptom identified has been a cough, with about 62 per cent of all cases reporting one. Sore throat and fever were the next most common.

“We also found seven and a half per cent of all our cases showed no symptoms at the time at which they were tested,” she said, adding those cases were found by testing all those in outbreak settings.

Conditions that tend to be present in severe outcomes include cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, respiratory disease and immune deficiency, obesity or a history of smoking.

“We found people between the ages of 30 and 64 are more likely to have a severe outcome (hospital or death), if they have at least one of these conditions,” Hinshaw said.

She also said those over 65 were five times more likely to have a severe outcome.

Hinshaw there were key lessons for Albertans to take from the information, including the importance of monitoring ourselves for symptoms, isolating and going online for a COVID test.

“I know I keep repeating this message, but I cannot overstate how critical this is for protecting the health of those around you.”

The County of Newell has 11 cases, 10 active and one recovered.

In Cypress County, they are reporting eight cases of COVID-19, one active and seven recovered.

The County of Forty Mile and Municipal District of Taber each have two confirmed cases both listed as recovered.

Special Areas No. 2 has two confirmed cases, one active and one death.

The City of Lethbridge has 17 active cases, seven listed as active and 10 recovered. Lethbridge County has one recorded recovered case.

by Chris Brown

COVID-19 contact tracing app ABTraceTogether launched by Alberta

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