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A half-million Coloradans have already signed up for the state’s new coronavirus-tracking notification tool

The app, called Exposure Notifications, works only on smartphones, leaving out at least 19% of the state

John Ingold
The Colorado Sun
More than 500,000 Coloradans have already signed up for the state’s new tool to notify people if they have possibly been exposed to the coronavirus.

More than 500,000 Coloradans have already signed up for the state’s new tool to notify people if they have possibly been exposed to the coronavirus.

The tool, called Exposure Notifications, runs in the background on smartphones to exchange non-personally identifying information with other phones it comes near that also are running the app. If a person later tests positive for coronavirus, they will have the option of sending a notification to all the people who also use the app that the person had potentially exposed.

Coloradans began receiving alerts on their phones on Sunday that the app is either available to download or turn on. By Wednesday night, 587,615 people had done so. That represents about 10% of Colorado’s population, said Sarah Tuneberg, the state COVID-19 adviser who has helped develop the state’s version of the app in conjunction with tech companies Apple and Google.



“That’s a huge win for Colorado already and everybody who did it,” she said during a Thursday call with reporters.

Colorado officials hope the app will greatly improve their contact-tracing efforts, during a time when state and local health authorities are struggling to contain a surging number of COVID-19 cases.




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