As the quick-spreading omicron variant pervades the country and the Bay Area as the dominant strain of COVID-19, it’s worth issuing a reminder that there’s a feature on your phone that can notify you of recent exposure and potentially help curtail the spread of the virus.
But first, you have to turn these notifications on.
Earlier in the pandemic, Apple and Google partnered with state health agencies to use Bluetooth technology built into your iPhones and Android devices that pings data back and forth between phones that are in range of each other. And as omicron rages on, spreading at an unprecedented rate — despite seemingly low rates of hospitalization for vaccinated and boosted individuals — more people are beginning to get these notifications.
In California, CA Notify is the government service in charge of slowing the spread of COVID-19 through the technology in our phones.
CA Notify is using Bluetooth technology on our phones to try and stop the spread of COVID-19.
Nico Madrigal-Yankowski/SFGATE
Some people have possibly received a notification push with a red warning signal and the words “Possible exposure to COVID-19 virus.” And UCSF infectious diseases expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong says that this notice may be key to getting more people tested for the virus.
“It does empower individuals to go get tested in a gentle way which sits well with many folks,” he told SFGATE in an email. “Anecdotally I do know several folks who have used the notification as a push to go get tested and some of them have yielded positive tests.”
The technology isn’t perfect, as institutions like the MIT Technology Review have previously reported. The information it provides is generally limited, as it relies on a lot of people using the service to get the most accurate data. It also is an inconvenience for health care workers and other professionals working closely with COVID-19 positive individuals, since it tends to pop up so often in their day-to-day lives, Chin-Hong said.
“Because no private information is submitted and data collected on an individual level, we will never know the effectiveness of this,” he said.
But for a bit of peace of mind — and additional precaution — it never hurts to have it enabled, if you haven’t already done so.
Here’s an explainer on how to set up these notifications and what to do if you get a notification.
Note: This is a step-by-step guide for iPhones. According to Google, which develops Android, “you need to … download an official app from your region’s government public health authority.” The CA Notify app is available for download from the Play Store.
How to enable COVID-19 notifications on your iPhone
Step 1: Turn Bluetooth on and leave it on. Data cannot be shared while Bluetooth is off. Most of the time, Bluetooth is on automatically, so double-check if it is already enabled on your phone.
Find the “Exposure Notifications” tab and follow the instructions to set up COVID-19 exposure data on your phone.
Nico Madrigal-Yankowski/SFGATE
Step 2: Go into Settings and scroll down to “Exposure Notifications.” On an iPhone, it is in the same section as “General,” “Control Center” and “Accessibility.” You will find it directly below the “Emergency SOS” tab. The “Exposure Notifications” tab will have a big red dot with smaller red dots circulating around the big dot, to look like a virus.
Step 3: When you click on the “Exposure Notifications” tab, you will be prompted to “Select your Country or Region.” Click on the country you live in. Then, if you live in the United States, click on the state you live in. You will then be prompted to agree to the terms and conditions.
Step 4: Immediately after agreeing to the terms, a notification will pop up asking you to allow notifications to pop up for this app. You must click “Turn On” or else the system will not work.
Step 5: The next screen will show a message that says “Exposure Notifications are Enabled” and you will click the blue “Next” button at the bottom. This following prompt is super important. CA Notify will ask you to “Contribute your data to help understand the spread of COVID-19.” Click the blue button that says “Share.” This is a vital step as it will share your exposure data (or lack thereof) to their entire system and be able to ping others that were near you and inform them of a possible exposure to the virus.
Look for the green check marks under “Exposure Notifications.”
Nico Madrigal-Yankowski/SFGATE
What to do if you get a COVID-19 phone notification
So let’s say you receive a phone notification that says you have possibly been exposed to the COVID-19 virus. What should you do now?
“First thing to do: breathe and don’t panic for the simple reason that the app doesn’t know how protected you were at the time or if it was a credible exposure,” Chin-Hong says.
But get tested — ideally three to five days after the initial exposure, he said. This goes double if you begin to experience symptoms in line with COVID-19.
It may also not hurt to tell friends and loved ones of your exposure, especially if you recently spent time with them and they do not have the feature enabled.
If you test positive, you should enter the “Exposure Notifications” tab in “Settings” and click on the “Share a Positive COVID-19 Diagnosis.” This is crucial as it will ping the other phones it has been near and alert others to your positive diagnosis, anonymously. A PCR test to confirm your rapid test result would also be beneficial, if possible, as organizations like the American Institute for Microbiology have found high rates of false positives due to incorrectly following rapid test manufacturer instructions.
Source: https://www.sfgate.com/coronavirus/article/How-to-turn-on-covid-exposure-notifications-16720686.php
