Posted on January 16
We don’t hear about the app anymore COVID Alert. Is it still in operation? Do people who have COVID still receive a one-time key? And what about those who have a positive rapid test?
Alain Belhumeur
COVID Alert ! It sounds like you’re talking about a forgotten technology like VHS. How many Canadians have downloaded this app to their phone and then never thought about it again?
In late December, Newfoundland’s Minister of Health announced at a press briefing that the federal government had “abandoned” the app and was no longer updating it.
In the facts, COVID Alert still works.
“The Government of Canada always recommends using COVID Alert, even for vaccinated people. Given the uncertainties regarding the variants, and while we learn more about vaccines, the application remains a useful tool in the fight against COVID-19”, answers Health Canada.
A person who is diagnosed with COVID-19 must enter a code called a “one-time key” into the app, which will then notify people who have been in close contact with them. The provinces manage the allocation of these keys. In Quebec, dial 1-855-228-4253 to obtain it. We took the test and found someone within seconds who assured us that they were handing out keys on a regular basis.
However, it should be noted thatCOVID Alert is far from having been adopted massively by the population. As of 1er January 2022, there were 6,849,624 downloads of the app. Note that it is used everywhere in the country except in British Columbia, Alberta, Nunavut and the Yukon.
Last December, when the Omicron variant was beginning to surge, only 1022 keys were distributed in Quebec. It’s not much. By the end of the month, around 15,000 cases were being reported daily in the province. Nationwide, 12,252 keys were claimed in December.
As for January 2022, there are currently only 422 keys distributed in Quebec, despite the wave of cases due to Omicron. This is not surprising: the Quebec Ministry of Health explains that a PCR test is still required to obtain a key… whereas these tests are no longer offered to the general population. According to the CIUSSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, involved in the operation ofCOVID Alert, discussions are underway with the federal government to find out whether we should accept diagnoses made with rapid antigenic tests.
Conclusion: do not rely too much on COVID Alert to notify you if you have been in contact with an infected person. At a time when public health is overwhelmed by the number of cases and can no longer do contact tracing, this application could probably play a role. But its low adoption by the population, probably linked to the fact that the authorities have not promoted it for a long time, seriously undermines its effectiveness.
The fact that a PCR test is still required to declare a diagnosis there when these tools are no longer available illustrates the extent to which the application is no longer a priority.