WASHINGTON — The District is taking more precautions to protect Washingtonians in the fight against coronavirus.
Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Monday that D.C. will launch a new COVID-19 exposure notifications app for residents beginning Oct. 20 to aid in contact tracing.
The new app, DC CAN, was developed by Apple and Google and can be used by both iPhone and Android users based on whether or not the smartphone user activates the specific region/state on their phone.
D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt said during Monday's coronavirus update that users’ phones — if they choose to opt-in — will send out “beacons” to other nearby phones using a randomly generated ID that changes every 10-20 minutes.
According to Nesbitt, the exposure notification system once a day will download a list of keys belonging to people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and report their diagnosis through DC CAN.
Each device will check the list of keys it has stored against the downloaded keys.
Here's how the contact tracing system works:
- Starting Oct. 20, iPhone users will be able to turn on the COVID-19 exposure notifications in D.C. iPhone users will be able to opt into exposure notifications through their settings without having to download a separate app.
- Once iPhone users turn on the COVID-19 exposure notifications through their settings, they will be taken through the onboarding process.
- The process is slightly different for Android users as they will be prompted to opt-in and install the DC CAN app from the Google Play Store.
- Once the app is downloaded, then the user is taken through the onboarding process.
- Once the system is enabled, users' devices will regularly send out a beacon via Bluetooth that includes a "privacy-preserving" random Bluetooth key.
- Nearby phones will be "listening" for those beacons while broadcasting their own. Each phone will store the beacons it receives securely on the device.
- Once a day, the exposure notifications system will download a list of keys that belong to those who test positive for COVID-19 and reported it through the system.
- Each phone will check the list of keys it has stored compared to the downloaded keys and if there is a match, the user will be contacted by D.C. Health about the next steps in the process.
- Once the person has opted in or downloaded the app, they will receive a notification informing them if they have come in contact with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19.
Nesbitt said the app will not automatically show up on Android phones, but users are able to download it from the Google Play store. She added that right now, the D.C. system cannot communicate with the neighboring states, due to Virginia having a different software system and Maryland not having a contact-tracing system available for smartphones.
The contact-tracing app will protect privacy and data security -- as the exposure notification system does not share location information from the person's phone with D.C.Health, Apple, or Google.
Those who test positive for coronavirus will not be identified by the system to other users, Apple or Google.
D.C. has 16,935 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 641 confirmed deaths, as of Monday. D.C. Health officials reported 25 new cases of the virus.
After a significant jump at the beginning of October, D.C.’s seven-day coronavirus average has been on the decline for the past week. It’s dropped by 22% over that period – although the city is still averaging nearly 50% more cases a day than it was on Oct. 1.