[imagesource: Pixabay]

Your mask works in two ways.

Alongside physical distancing, it helps to protect you from the virus. It also helps to protect those around you from contracting the virus – especially because some people are asymptomatic.

You could be carrying COVID-19 without knowing that you’re infected.

The new COVID Alert SA app takes it a step further.

The free exposure notification app lets people know when they’ve been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for the disease, while keeping all users 100% anonymous.

According to the Department of Health’s SA Coronavirus website, the app uses Bluetooth technology to connect users.

Check it out:

Like a number of countries across the globe, including Canada, Australia, and France, the developers of this technology have used Apple and Google’s exposure notification framework, to create the South African-specific app.

The app, which can be downloaded on the Apple App Store or Google Play, is quick and easy to install, is free with no in-app purchases, and doesn’t use mobile data.

The data to use the app has been zero-rated by all of South Africa’s mobile network providers.

Image: Apple Store

Here’s a breakdown of how it works, and why if implemented correctly, it could help to save lives.

• It uses Bluetooth to watch for other phones with the app installed, and keeps an anonymous record of everyone you have been in contact with over two weeks. If you test positive for the coronavirus, you tell the app, and the app tells everyone who was at risk of infection before you knew that you were infected/during the incubation period for the virus.
• Understand your COVID‑19 exposure risk. When app users with whom you have had recent close contact anonymously report that a test has shown they have COVID‑19 (to the app), you soon receive an exposure notification alert so that you know you’ve had contact with someone who has COVID‑19.
• Are guided as to the next steps you should take. People who have been potentially exposed to COVID‑19 are encouraged to self-quarantine and; therefore, help to curb the further spread of the virus.
• Keep your loved ones and those in your wider community safe from COVID‑19 – particularly those who are considered to be in the high-risk category for severe illness if they contract COVID‑19 (such as those who live with chronic illness, who are immunocompromised, cancer survivors and people older than 60).
• Ultimately contribute to avoiding a resurgence of COVID‑19 in South Africa, protecting South Africa’s healthcare services and vulnerable people, and ending the pandemic.

While I’m sure many out there are reluctant to trust the government to manage an app properly, the fact that the platforms used to create it are similar to those used to develop apps that have been effective in other parts of the world is a good sign.

At this point, we need to use whatever resources are available to us to beat this thing.

[source:sacoronavirus/departmentofhealth]