COVID-19 app coming to P.E.I. 'in the very near future'

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and P.E.I. Premier Dennis King announced Friday in a news release that people in P.E.I. will soon be able use the COVID Alert app.

The app is Canada's COVID-19 exposure notification app. The free app is designed to notify users if they may have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

Last week in a national address, Trudeau urged all Canadians to begin using the app as soon as it becomes available where they live, although downloading it and using it remainvoluntary.

No date was given for when theapplication will be fully operational in Prince Edward Island, but Friday'srelease said it would be"in the very near future."

How it works

Here's how it will work, according to the release: Islanders holding health cards will soon receive one-time "keys" or codes from their health authorities to use with the app.

When twomobile phones that have downloaded the app are in contact for more than 15 minutes at a distance closer than two metres, that contact is loggedvia Bluetooth as a "digital handshake," a code of random numbers and lettersin which no personal information is collected or stored.

When a person tests positive for COVID-19, public health officials give that person another code, called a key, to enter into theapp. Thattriggers an exposure alert to all phones that it logged contact with overthe previous 14 days.

The notification tells users they may have been exposed to COVID-19, and directs them about next steps to take based on their provincial public health advice.

There have been questions about the app's privacy implications, but the government says the app does not track a user's location or collect personally identifiable information, and "uses strong measures to protect any data it collects."

The app is now available in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The release noted Nova Scotia is also joining the app network "in the very near future."

The federal government is working with all provinces and territories to bring their health authorities on board in the coming weeks and months, the release said.

About3.1 million Canadians have already downloaded the app, Friday's news release said.

The P.E.I. Department of Health advised Islanders to watch next Tuesday's scheduled update from Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison for more details.

What people are saying

CBCNews asked a handful of folks on the street in Charlottetown what they think of the app.

"I think it's a good idea because it's going to help more about tracing and people are, will be like, maybe safer," saidChloe Arlapen.

David Rosas said that even though there are few cases on P.E.I., "it's good to know, and good to have that kind of assurancein case something happens, right. It's good control for us."

"We travel a lot and we hopingto travel again, so I thought it would beit's a good thing to have, I think," saidJane Grinstead.

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