COVID-19 Exposure Notification App to Expand to Additional UC Campuses

This week, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Technology (CDT) announced an expansion of the Exposure Notification Express app to additional University of California (UC) campuses. Recall, CDPH and CDT announced in September the new partnership with Google and Apple to confidentially notify individuals who opt in if they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The state initially launched the pilot project with UC San Diego and UC San Francisco.

The pilot project will now expand to UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Riverside in mid-November. According to CDPH, the app will assist campuses in curbing the transmission of COVID-19 while prioritizing privacy and security of users. The exposure notification platform uses Bluetooth technology to notify individuals who have been in close proximity of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 without revealing users’ identity or location.

To date, nearly 15,000 users have activated the app at UC San Diego, representing close to 50 percent of the on-campus community. UC San Francisco estimates 5,000 users out of an estimated 10,000 on-campus population. More than a dozen private codes have been issued to students and employees using the software who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The full press announcement from CDPH is available here.