Pennsylvania’s smartphone app that updates covid-19 cases and deaths will stop operating as of Wednesday.
The state health department says covid Alert PA, in use since early in the pandemic, is no longer an essential tool, even though the threat isn’t over.
“As we move forward through this phase of the response, the covid Alert PA app is no longer critical regardless of the current volume of covid-19 cases. The department will continue to stay alert and monitor covid-19 cases,” health department spokeswoman Maggi Barton said.
As of the final update, Pennsylvania showed 3,080,593 total infections since the pandemic began in March 2020. Currently, the state’s seven-day average of new cases stands at 3,182, with a total of 22,277 cases in the past week — nearly a 13% increase over last week. There have been a total of 46,164 covid-related deaths. Just under 1,200 people are hospitalized with covid as of Wednesday, including 118 in intensive care and 42 on breathing ventilators.
The app was downloaded by nearly 1.16 million people.
In early July, Barton said 4,853 people who tested positive for covid uploaded their result to the app, resulting in 2,845 people being alerted of exposure. The positive results were handled anonymously, with the infected person’s identity unknown to people exposed to them.
The app, created by Apple and used by many states, used Bluetooth keys to identify app users who were within six feet of an infected person for 15 minutes or more.
Barton says the state will continue to do contact tracing to find and notify people exposed to infected people, although she didn’t say how far-reaching the effort is. The latest recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control say people who get covid should stay home and away from other people for at least five days.
Barton says people can continue to get that information from these sources:
• Find a vaccine provider near you
• Track the level of covid-19 activity in your community via the CDC’s county-level map
• Get the latest weekly update on covid-19 data in Pennsylvania online
• Check if you should get a covid test on the “When to Get Tested” page
