In order to carry out outreach activities, WA Notify translated its materials into different languages.
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) is celebrating the success of WA Notify, the state’s exposure notification application. More than 2.62 million people have enabled it—more than 43% of all smartphone users in the state.
“WA Notify is a very successful innovation for our state. We are proud of the team of the Ministry of Health. They helped create a technology-based solution that contributed to the greater benefits we strive for and continue to strive for .Pandemic,” said Washington State Health Secretary Umair A. Shah.
The WA Notify app does not collect data about who the user is, where they go, or who is near them.
It uses privacy protection technology jointly developed by Google and Apple, and has received technical assistance and evaluation from the University of Washington.
“If you have contacted another WA Notify user in the past two weeks who tested positive for COVID-19 and followed the steps of anonymously notifying others, you will receive a notification on your phone that you may have been contacted Through the virus,” said Bryant Thomas Karras MD, Chief Information Officer of the Ministry of Health. “You will only be notified if there is exposure. Therefore, no news is good news.”
Everyone who receives an exposure notice will get guidance on what to do next based on their vaccination status and whether they are experiencing symptoms. This guide has been updated to be consistent with current DOH guidelines. The notification does not contain any information about who tested positive or where the contact may have occurred.
WA Notify can be enabled in the iPhone settings (iPhone 5s or later using iOS 12.5 or later), or it can be downloaded as an application from the Google Play store of the Android phone. The user can opt out at any time. WA Notify is available in more than 30 languages, so as many Washington residents as possible can use this tool.
“We are proud that the people of Washington have adopted this valuable tool so quickly,” Shah said. “If you have not activated WA Notify, please consider doing so. This is another way to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our community from COVID-19.”
To learn more, visit WANotify.org.
This health series is funded by the Washington State Department of Health, which has no editorial opinions or supervision of these contents.
