North Carolina Launches COVID-19 Exposure Notification App

NORTH CAROLINA — In a bid to help aide coronavirus contact tracing efforts, North Carolina public health officials launched a new free app that issues an alert to your phone if there's a possibility you may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

The "SlowCOVIDNC" app launched Sept. 22, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced. The app is completely anonymous and does not collect, store or share personal information or location data, the agency said.

“With SlowCOVIDNC App, North Carolinians have another powerful tool to help slow the spread of COVID-19 right in their pockets. Downloading SlowCOVIDNC is a practical step each of us can take to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our state,” DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen, M.D.

How It Works

Using Google and Apple's Exposure Notification System, SlowCOVIDNC notifies users if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

The app is free, voluntary and may be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Here are the steps, DHHS said:

• Download the free SlowCOVIDNC Exposure Notification app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and enable Bluetooth and Exposure Notifications. Bluetooth must be on for the app to work.
• After opting-in to receive notifications, the app will generate an anonymous token for the device. A token is a string of random letters which changes every 10-20 minutes and is never linked to identity or location. This protects app user privacy and security.
• Through Bluetooth, phones with the SlowCOVIDNC app work in the background (minimizing battery) to exchange these anonymous tokens every few minutes. Phones record how long they are near each other and the Bluetooth signal strength of their exchanges in order to estimate distance.
• If an app user tests positive for COVID-19, the individual may obtain a unique PIN to submit in the app. This voluntary and anonymous reporting notifies others who have downloaded the app that they may have been in close contact with someone in the last 14 days who has tested positive.
• PINs will be provided to app users who receive a positive COVID-19 test result through a web-based PIN Portal, by contacting the Community Care of North Carolina call center, or by contacting their Local Health Department.
• SlowCOVIDNC periodically downloads tokens from the server from the devices of users who have anonymously reported a positive test. Phones then use records of the signal strength and duration of exposures with those tokens to calculate risk and determine if an app user has met a threshold to receive an exposure notification.

More information about SlowCOVIDNC may be found here.