New App Alerts New Yorkers when they’ve Come in Contact with a COVID-19 Infected Person

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday the release of a new smartphone app that alerts residents when they’ve come in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. 

The app works in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. 

“The way it will work is when a person tests positive, the Department of Health contacts that person, asks that person if they have an iPhone, gives that person a password, that person types in their password for their phone and then any other phone that comes within six feet of that phone is on the app,” Cuomo said in a press briefing. 

The app will not release personal identifying information

(Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)