New York and New Jersey Launch Contact Tracing Apps With Exposure Notification API

[MacRumors]

New York and New Jersey have launched COVID-19 contact tracing apps based on Apple and Google's Exposure Notification technology.

In a press release on the New York State website, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced the release of COVID Alert NY and COVID Alert NJ for iPhone and Android users.

Like other apps that take advantage of the Exposure Notification API from Apple and Google, the two apps are designed to track who people come into contact with each other using Bluetooth, providing a notification if one of those people later comes down with the coronavirus.

As well as launching their own state contact tracing apps, the New York and New Jersey governors said they would join Pennsylvania and Delaware in creating a regional network that will enable the apps to work across state lines.

In the United States, Virginia, North Dakota, Arizona, Delaware, Nevada, Alabama, Wyoming, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have launched apps that use Apple's ‌Exposure Notification‌ API. Connecticut is also expected to launch an app in the next few weeks.

More information on Apple and Google's ‌Exposure Notification‌ API, such as how it works and where it's available, can be found in our guide.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: New York and New Jersey Launch Contact Tracing Apps With Exposure Notification API

 

[iGeneo]

Awesome! Keep them coming

 

[itsmilo]

the German one has shown me a few time now that I was in contact with people that later tested positive but that the risk is low cuz I either didn’t really get in contact with them (walls, therefore just „nearby“) or for a short moment and I am like hmmm I don’t really think the virus cares about timing? Technically one sneeze in the wrong direction could be enough no?

 

[Morgenland]

I am curious about their app experiences!
The creation of a regional network that enables apps to work across state lines is also a good start there.
Congrats, very promising.

 

[manu chao]

the German one has shown me a few time now that I was in contact with people that later tested positive but that the risk is low cuz I either didn’t really get in contact with them (walls, therefore just „nearby“) or for a short moment and I am like hmmm I don’t really think the virus cares about timing? Technically one sneeze in the wrong direction could be enough no?

It's all about probabilities and the efficient use of resources and restrictions. The longer you are close to somebody infected, the higher the probability that this person sneezes during that interaction. Only if your risk of having gotten infected rises above a certain threshold (eg, 5%), is it warranted to require testing and quarantine. If for example testing becomes cheaper (and uses less of the limited lab resources), then it could make sense to also test people that only had very short interactions (though there are plenty of other categories of people that would at least be on the same priority level for additional testing, eg, people dealing with any kind of sick or vulnerable persons).

P.S.: There probably is a statistic of what percentage of people who get tested due to being alerted by the exposure notification system in fact test positive. And it probably makes sense to compare that positivity rate to the general positivity rate or ideally to the positivity rate of people being identified as test targets by other means.

 

[BigDO]

My govt’s one also alerted me to an exposure. It was obvious that it happened at the gym, as it was the only place i went to that day, but it was disappointing that it only notified me 10 days after the potential exposure (so I wasn’t able to quarantine soon enough). I understand that this is not an API/app issue, but it highlights that it is completely dependent on the person who tests positive entering this into the app immediately.

 

[JulianL]

My govt’s one also alerted me to an exposure. It was obvious that it happened at the gym, as it was the only place i went to that day, but it was disappointing that it only notified me 10 days after the potential exposure (so I wasn’t able to quarantine soon enough). I understand that this is not an API/app issue, but it highlights that it is completely dependent on the person who tests positive entering this into the app immediately.

It also depends on the tests being turned around in a reasonable time. Both the USA and the UK, and I suspect many other countries, have had issues with test turnaround times in the past. When the UK was testing its first attempt at a contact app, the version not based on the Apple/Google APIs, it was at a time when test turnaround times were so delayed in the UK that the UK Government was considering allowing users to self-declare as positive without a test result because waiting over a week for a positive result would have made the whole thing pointless. I also remember maybe a month ago the turnaround times on US testing had got to the 7 - 14 day mark to get results back from some of the major labs which Fauci was all over the news pointing out how that essentially rendered those test results worthless.

I'm not sure what the average and maximum test turnaround times are at the moment in either country but fast turnaround of test results is a critical aspect for the success of these contact tracing apps assuming that they are all set up to need a confirmed test result before declaring positive. (And the danger of not requiring an authenticated test result to declare positive is that you get idiots falsely declaring positive for a laugh or to deliberately sabotage the system so I doubt that any country/state is going down that route.)

 

[manu chao]

My govt’s one also alerted me to an exposure. It was obvious that it happened at the gym, as it was the only place i went to that day, but it was disappointing that it only notified me 10 days after the potential exposure (so I wasn’t able to quarantine soon enough). I understand that this is not an API/app issue, but it highlights that it is completely dependent on the person who tests positive entering this into the app immediately.

There are unfortunately multiple factors that contribute to this delay. The infected person you were exposed to might only have gotten tested several days after you were both together at the gym (it think it generally makes sense to assume that when a person tests positive that she or he might already have been infectious a couple of days before the test was applied). Then getting the test results will usually take a day or two, even under good conditions. Plus, as you said, that person might not report the result in the app right away.

This naturally highlights the importance of speed in all aspects (from getting a test appointment to obtaining the results). One approach to short-circuit this sequence of events somewhat is to not only consider where and when a positive-testing person has infected others (as the exposure notifications system currently does) but where that person got infected her- or himself (which might have been, eg, at a party a couple of days before you two crossed paths at the gym) and then to notify all people who were at that party to quarantine a couple of days until they test negative. Or alternatively to only quarantine for a limited time as long as they don't have any symptoms if testing resources are scarce. Since if you don't develop symptoms within, I don't know, 14 days after a suspected infection event, you either didn't get infected or got such a mild form of the desease that you are basically not infectious anymore after that amount of time has passed.

 

[manu chao]

My govt’s one also alerted me to an exposure. It was obvious that it happened at the gym, as it was the only place i went to that day.

So, it only tells you which day you might have been exposed, not the time of day? (I would assume that this coarseness in regard to temporal resolution serves the purpose to make it less easy for the notified person to directly identify who was the infected person they were in contact with and thus protect that person's privacy. While providing the day is sufficient to know in what stage of the (possible) infection you might be. Though of course, as in your case, knowing the day can be enough to identify at least the likely location.)

 

[meaning-matters]

Would save 1000x more people if warned about junk food.

 

[manu chao]

Would save 1000x lives if people would be warned about junk food.

I think most people have at one time or another been warned about junk food by somebody. Depending on the jurisdiction, their might be some sort of warning label on the packaging of junk food (eg, in the form of traffic light nutrition labelling). But one could certainly do more in to regard to such warnings. Though it is hard to quantify the effect of, eg, an advertising campaign on this topic. However, there have been studies on the effect of product labelling and there is a measureable effect.

Both health issues also have financial aspects. And while heart disease causes significant costs in the health system, the financial costs of other measures of limiting the spread of COVID-19 are enormous (even without any government intervention, people have scaled back their patronage of buisnesses such as restaurants, travel, in-person entertainment significantly on their own accord).

 

[CheesePuff]

Would save 1000x lives if people would be warned about junk food.

100% agreed, the leading cause of death in the US is heart disease, with the main driver caused by poor diet.

 

[Corsig]

So if I live on the border of NJ/NY and frequently go Into both states can I download both until the network is announced?

edit- yes you can download both. One state become the “active region” and the other becomes an “ authorized Region”. I had to go back in and make NJ the active one since that’s where I spend most of my time

 

[seamuskrat]

Sadly Get an error 1002 trying to get it going. Not off to a great start. or the NJ Version.

 

[REBELinBLUE]

Would save 1000x more people if warned about junk food.

100% agreed, the leading cause of death in the US is heart disease, with the main driver caused by poor diet.

No offence but why do people insist on making these fatuous comparisons every time this topic comes up, you get heart disease from your own actions, you can't catch heart disease through no fault of your own just because you happen to stand next to someone in a queue who has it. (Obviously, there are more complicated points about socio-economic situations but the point is you can't just catch heart disease simply by being near someone who has it)

Totally different scenarios

 

[iGeneo]

It also depends on the tests being turned around in a reasonable time. Both the USA and the UK, and I suspect many other countries, have had issues with test turnaround times in the past. When the UK was testing its first attempt at a contact app, the version not based on the Apple/Google APIs, it was at a time when test turnaround times were so delayed in the UK that the UK Government was considering allowing users to self-declare as positive without a test result because waiting over a week for a positive result would have made the whole thing pointless. I also remember maybe a month ago the turnaround times on US testing had got to the 7 - 14 day mark to get results back from some of the major labs which Fauci was all over the news pointing out how that essentially rendered those test results worthless.

I'm not sure what the average and maximum test turnaround times are at the moment in either country but fast turnaround of test results is a critical aspect for the success of these contact tracing apps assuming that they are all set up to need a confirmed test result before declaring positive. (And the danger of not requiring an authenticated test result to declare positive is that you get idiots falsely declaring positive for a laugh or to deliberately sabotage the system so I doubt that any country/state is going down that route.)

I had a test in the US (Paid) Results in an hour
I had a test in the UK on Monday of this week, results Thursday Noon. Reasonable, since it went by post down to London.

Positively negative.... In a good way

 

[manu chao]

No offence but why do people insist on making these fatuous comparisons every time this topic comes up, you get heart disease from your own actions, you can't catch heart disease through no fault of your own just because you happen to stand next to someone in a queue who has it. (Obviously, there are more complicated points about socio-economic situations but the point is you can't just catch heart disease simply by being near someone who has it)

Totally different scenarios

One can make the argument that given the massive economic measures related to COVID-19, it might make sense to have, after the crisis is over, a more thorough discussion about how health aspects and government actions should be organised, how to prioritise different measures how much money should be invested.

But bringing up other completely unreleated health issues when discussing specific aspects of the response to COVID-19 is an intentional attempt to confuse and distract.

 

[CheesePuff]

No offence but why do people insist on making these fatuous comparisons every time this topic comes up, you get heart disease from your own actions, you can't catch heart disease through no fault of your own just because you happen to stand next to someone in a queue who has it. (Obviously, there are more complicated points about socio-economic situations but the point is you can't just catch heart disease simply by being near someone who has it)

Totally different scenarios

I did not compare my response in any way to COVID-19, just stating the facts that for decades this has bene the leading killer of Americans.

 

[bluespider]

Sure wish FL would do the right thing and get on board!

 

[DEXTERITY]

Sure wish FL would do the right thing and get on board!

they would rather be irresponsible and open everything up - guarantee that backfires big time in about three weeks

 

[manu chao]

I did not compare my response in any way to COVID-19, just stating the facts that for decades this has bene the leading killer of Americans.

Sure, and the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed over 200'000 people. And Communist regimes (from Stalin over Mao to Pol Pot) might have been responsible for the death of up to 94 million people. Unless it relates somehow to the exposure notification or more generally the contact tracing process, what is the point of mentioning it?

And btw, saying something is 'x times more' is a comparison. And you '100% agreed' with a post making this comparison with COVID-19. So, you didn't compare it but agreed with somebody comparing it.

 

[I7guy]

I was really surprised this took as long to get out to the public as it did. But kudos to NY/NJ.

 

[CarlJ]

California will be getting an Exposure Notification app before too long:

UC Campuses Pilot Google-Apple Notification Technology to Help Prevent COVID-19 Outbreaks​

UC San Diego Launches Privacy-First Smartphone Technology Test​

I don’t have the (beta) app, but I do have the profile that lets me get exposure notifications if I come into contact with someone who has tested positive. Not that I ever come into contact with anyone these days.

 

[CarlJ]

they would rather be irresponsible and open everything up - guarantee that backfires big time in about three weeks

But I’ve heard from Extremely Reliable sources that it’ll all go away by April (2020), so opening up now shouldn’t be a problem, right?

 

[C DM]

Would save 1000x more people if warned about junk food.

I did not compare my response in any way to COVID-19, just stating the facts that for decades this has bene the leading killer of Americans.

In the context of exposure notifications related to a novel virus that is spreading that is essentially neither here nor there.

Sure, and the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed over 200'000 people. And Communist regimes (from Stalin over Mao to Pol Pot) might have been responsible for the death of up to 94 million people. Unless it relates somehow to the exposure notification or more generally the contact tracing process, what is the point of mentioning it?

And btw, saying something is 'x times more' is a comparison. And you '100% agreed' with a post making this comparison with COVID-19. So, you didn't compare it but agreed with somebody comparing it.

Well put.