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Nova Scotia and PEI will adopt COVID Alert, says Health Canada




According to the COVID 19 Alert Task Force of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Canada, Canada's COVID Alert Exposure Notification App is the latest province to indicate its decision to adopt. 

On October 2, Marika Nadeo, director general of Canada's COVID 19 Alert Task Force, said that 3.1 million downloads and more than 645 people have volunteered their once key to inform others after testing. 

"I want to clarify that COVID alerts can help reduce transmissions at all levels," Nadeau said. For example, if a user receives a notification, they cannot decide to visit their parents or grandparents. 

This means that users can protect their loved ones from potential risk. According to Nadeau, the app is compatible with 92 percent of phones used in Canada. 

Phones that cannot accommodate the app are more than five years old with operating systems that are not compatible. Canada's COVID-19 exposure notification app follows a simple concept.

It provides a random numeric identifier to each user. If a person tests positive for more than 15 minutes, this app will alert the user. 

Nadeau notes that the Government of Canada is taking all measures to protect user data, including the establishment of the COVID-19 exposure notification App Advisory Council. 

The council consists of 11 members, including two co-chairs and represents Canada's diversity and regional challenges across the country. 

COVID-Alert has been put through three separate security reviews by the Canadian Center for Cyberspecification, the Office of the Chief Information Officer of Canada and an external BlackBerry audit firm. According to the task force, more than 6,000 people have helped develop the app's accessibility features. 

In addition to its design, the app has also received a new bilingual phonetic alphabet to transmit alphanumeric codes to patients over the phone. COVID-Alert has been adopted by Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and (soon) Quebec.

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