Chrystia Freeland tests negative for coronavirus after app exposure notification

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has tested negative for the novel coronavirus, a day after revealing she was in self-isolation after receiving an exposure notification from the COVID Alert app.

"My results came back negative this morning," Freeland tweeted late Sunday morning. "Again, my thanks to our tremendous health-care professionals."

She went on to urge Canadians to download the COVID Alert app "and help stop the spread of this virus."

On Saturday, Freeland tweeted that she had been tested for COVID-19 after getting a notification from the app and was isolating at home as she waited for the results.

The COVID Alert app was launched at the end of July and was initially designed to send alerts to all users who were in extended close contact with an infected person over the past 14 days.

There have been about 4.9 million downloads of thenotification appso far, with 2,939 Canadians using it to log a positive coronavirus test. Alberta and British Columbia are the final two provinces that have yet to activate the app.

On Friday, the federal government announced that the app had been updated to allow users reporting a positive result to input their testing date or the date their symptoms first began.