500,000 Coloradans Opt In For COVID-19 Exposure Notification On Phones

DENVER (CBS4) -- More than 500,000 Coloradans have opted in on a service that tracks your cell phone and notifies you if you've been near someone who tested positive for COVID-19. The exposure notification service launched on Sunday.

"More than half a million Coloradans have enabled the service. That's over 10% of our total population. Of those with smartphones, it's more than 15%," said Sarah Tuneberg, Innovation Response Team Lead for the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.

"It's not enough yet but we are getting there, and we are grateful for each and every Coloradoan who has added their phone to the fight against COVID," Tuneberg said.

Tuneberg said if 15% of Coloradans sign up, it could reduce infections by 8%.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

When two people meet who've both opted into the app and they practice appropriate social distancing and mask wearing, their phones are exchanging anonymous tokens via Bluetooth. Those tokens are stored anonymously on a public health server.

If one of those people start to feel ill and learn they have tested positive for COVID-19 from a doctor's office, they will get a code/key from their local public health agency to enter into their phone.

(credit: CBS)The key will then notify anyone who opted in and had contact with the patient.

"All of those tokens then send a message back to the phones that they were generated on and give people a little push notification that says 'Hey, look, you might have been exposed. Call your local public health agency,'" said Tuneberg.

Android users can download CO Exposure Notifications on the Google Play store.

iPhone users can enable CO Exposure Notifications in their phone settings by finding Settings > Exposure Notifications > United States > Colorado.