The Covit Alert NY app has surpassed 500,000 downloads

If someone later reports in use that he or she has tested positive, everyone who may have been near that person for 10 minutes or more will be notified.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Gov. Alert NY is built on Apple and Google technology and will not use any location data, preventing it from collecting any personal user information earlier this month.

Moving the needle

Troy Dasier, a professor of economic epidemiology at the University of Fordham, said similar applications have been proven effective in Asia, where individuals should not report to a contact tracer, such as sitting next to them on a bus.

“The more people who use the app, the better it works,” Dasier said. “But even a small percentage of users find it helpful because it reduces at least some manual contact leads.”

A joint study between the University of Oxford and Google in September estimated that exposure announcements would reduce infections by 15% in a region if an application was downloaded by 15% in a region and paired with manual communication tracking. If every single download of Covit Alert NY represents one person, 3% of New York’s 19.5 million residents use it.

New York’s use connects to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, where they warn people if anyone outside the state is exposed. Cuomo Govt has promised to advertise Alert NY and has placed a download link prominently on the website dedicated to the state Govt-19 response.

As described by Andrew McLaughlin, a technology entrepreneur who includes members of Google and Amazon, Covid-19, a group of “volunteer nerds” led by the technology task force, conducts virtual seminars and sessions to educate employers about the application. In turn, they can motivate their employees to download it as a tool to re-open the workplace.

“We see this as a complement to state-level efforts,” said McLaughlin, a former deputy chief executive of the Obama administration. “We’ll see how big employers can move the needle.”