At a weekly press conference lead by Governor John Bel Edwards, State Health Officer, Dr. Joe Kanter, unveiled a new application for your smart phone that warns you if you’re about to come in contact with a carrier of COVID-19.
“It’s an app on your phone called COVID Defense,” Kanter says.
The new app works in conjunction with other app users to issue a coded warning through Bluetooth to a phone that another app user is positive for COVID-19.
“This is an exposure notification program that in an anonymous and confidential way will push a notice to users if they come in close contact with somebody else who is participating in the program and identified as a positive case of COVID.”
Kanter describes where the app best comes into use:
“I think it will find some use on college campuses, I think other work places where sometimes it’s challenging to go back and do contact tracing this is going to prove to be very useful,” Kanter says. “A number of other states have started using these types of programs and they’ve worked well.
You can find the COVID Defense app in the Apple App Store for iPhones and in Google Store for Android smartphone users.
