Oregon is one of only four states along or to the west of the continental division that has not yet launched smartphone technology to assist in tracking contact with the coronavirus, leaving the state about two months late with no explanation from the authorities about the delay.
Governor Kate Brown announced that Oregon would test Exposure Notifications Express technology last fall and state officials anticipated a broader launch in January. The program allows users to choose to receive a notice if they have spent time next to someone who has subsequently had a positive result, such as having dinner at a restaurant or spending time at a college party.
California launched its notification system on December 10, with “millions” now using it. Washington started even earlier, November 30, and more than 1.8 million residents joined.
Oregon officials gave only vague statements and varying schedules. A spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority in December said the agency was “currently working on a launch in January 2021”. In early January, officials said they were “evaluating the results” of a pilot project at Oregon State University and are likely to have an update in the middle of the month.
This week, the health authority said the results are still being analyzed – and neither the agency nor Oregon State University responded to requests for public records for documentation of the results or recommendations.
“OHA is still evaluating the results of an application pilot now completed at Oregon State University to determine a date for implementing it, but as mentioned earlier, we are looking into the spring for go-live,” Tim Heider, spokesman the health authority’s voice said in an e-mail.
The notification system is a complementary tool to traditional contact tracking, in which public health officials interview someone who has been infected, collect the names of people who have been in close contact with that person, and then contact those people to inform them. them about the exhibition.
The smartphone system allows people who choose to use their cell phones to ping anonymously on nearby cell phones, with data kept confidential. If someone’s test result is positive, you will receive a code from your local health authorities that you can enter on your phone. This triggers a process of sending notifications to people who have been in close contact with the infected person – without revealing anyone’s personal information.
While officials in many states have praised the technology’s potential to help slow the spread of coronavirus,
the success of these programs is unclear.
Washington officials say they believe the exhibit app is a useful tool, although it is difficult to know for sure. “The way WA Notify works is that no news is good news,” said Teresa McCallion, a state health spokeswoman by email.
State officials said they were unable to provide detailed information on how many of its 1.8 million users received a notification, saying there are several ways to be notified. The main source is contact trackers, who ask residents if they use the app.
The University of Washington is studying the nascent state program and hopes to release a report this month.
“We are adding approximately 3,000 new users each week,” said McCallion. “That kind of response exceeds our wildest expectations.”
King County, where he is in Seattle, estimates that about 20% of respondents looking for contacts indicated that they had WA Notify on their phones, local officials said.
Since December, the system has sent codes to 2,140 users of apps with infections so that they could choose to trigger notifications to people with whom they had close contact.
“The effect of WA Notify on reducing transmission is being analyzed at the state level,” said a county spokesman.
A UK study released last month found that more than 1.7 million smartphone users in England and Wales were instructed to isolate themselves through an exposure notification app in just a few months. The study estimated that more than 600,000 cases of COVID-19 have been prevented since the app’s launch in September.
“Isolating and knowing when you are at risk of getting the coronavirus is essential to stop the spread of this virus, and the app is the fastest way to notify you if you are at risk,” Matt Hancock, Secretary of Health and Social Care , said in a statement last month.
Oregon’s information gap remains, as cases this month have plummeted across the state to levels below last summer’s peak. But the technology can apparently be useful, as the governor has authorized in-house dining in 31 of the 36 counties, including the entire metropolitan area, and has pledged to keep it that way until at least March 26.
According to state data, only 50% of cases this week have been traced to a known source. Multnomah County falls far short of that mark, with only 41% of the county’s rapidly declining cases traced to a specific source, well below the state’s stated goal of 70%.
Contact trackers in the three counties area were overwhelmed this winter amid rising cases and it is unclear what role their challenges played in the delay. In December, state health officials said they were coordinating the launch of the application with county health offices, but did not provide details.
In late November, health officials in the three counties were so overwhelmed that they asked positive COVID residents to call nearby contacts and their employer and not wait for a contact tracker to arrive – suggesting that new tasks linked to a notification system would not. were viable.
In addition to Washington and California, Hawaii, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and Nevada have enabled notification systems across the state. Arizona has launched notification systems on some college campuses and New Mexico has a small-scale option in Santa Fe.
Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and Montana do not have notification systems enabled.
Colorado said it now has about 1.8 million users, with the technology widely adopted for being free, anonymous and easy to use on Android and Apple devices. It also comes in several languages.
A state spokesman said the notification system “has been a useful tool in helping to delay the transmission of the disease”.
– Andrew Theen; [email protected]; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen