NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- New York state’s COVID tracking app hasn’t yielded the numbers the state had hoped it would.
More than 1 million people downloaded the COVID Alert NY app after it was unveiled in October.
Since then, more than 400,000 New Yorkers have tested positive for the virus, but only about 1,400 of those positive tests were contact-traced through the app.
The 1,400 people who reported being positive through the app led to 1,300 more people being notified.
The MTA’s Larry Schwartz, a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo tasked with running the state’s contact tracing program, told the New York Post that the app was an “added tool” in the program and part of a multifaceted effort.
“We’ve reached more than 80 percent of all positive cases and 85 percent of their contacts,” Schwartz told the Post. “No one else in the country has had that kind of success.”
The app, which is not mandatory, does not use GPS technology but rather Bluetooth to detect other devices less than six feet away. It then sees if one of those devices belongs to someone who tested positive.