Three U.S. states — North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alabama — this week are rolling out or have announced an upcoming rollout of COVID-19 coronavirus contact tracing apps built using the Exposure Notification API developed by Apple and Google.
North Dakota became the second state to roll out a contact tracing app developed by ProudCrowd using the Apple/Google API when its new “Care19 Alert” app went live on Thursday. The app is the first to offer communication with contact tracing apps maintained by other states.
The North Dakota app is available in both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.
In July, the Association of Public Health Laboratories announced a partnership with Apple, Google, and Microsoft to build a national server for the secure storage and dissemination of COVID-19 Exposure Notification data. Whether North Dakota’s app integrates with APHL’s server is unclear.
Virginia became the first U.S. state to release a COVID-19 exposure notification app using Apple’s and Google’s jointly developed API when it released its app last week.
Reuters reports a second ProudCrowd-developed app will roll out to Wyoming citizens on Friday. Alabama expects to debut a similar app on Monday. The app has been tested by the University of Alabama at Birmingham students and staff.
We should see new contact tracing apps from Washington and Pennsylvania in the coming weeks. Those apps are also expected to use the Apple/Google API. Other states, including South Carolina, have announced their intent to release similar apps, but have not announced release dates.
