Canada stops using its COVID alert app based on iOS and Android notification API

The Canadian government announced Friday that it will stop using an app it commissioned based on the COVID-19 Exposure Alert API jointly developed by Google and Apple as a measure to help combat the spread of the disease, TechCrunch reported. The system was immediately disabled, according to a government alert that also advised users to delete the COVID Alert app from their devices.

As for why the program was terminated, the announcement shows that it is related to a significant drop in PCR testing in the country, which has resulted in very few one-time keys being issued to patients for the app, so usage has apparently slowed to a small extent.

Canada implemented a COVID alert app in July 2020. Since then, it has been downloaded by 6.9 million people and provided exposure notifications on behalf of 57,000 people who tested positive and entered a one-time-key into the app, Health Canada said.

The COVID Alert app was developed in part by engineers at Shopify and conducted a security review by BlackBerry, in collaboration with provincial and federal resources. Meanwhile, in Ontario, the health system is seeing record demand — mostly due to the collateral effects of COVID, including staff shutdowns, rather than COVID cases themselves.

Wastewater data from Ontario, the best source of infection information since most large-scale PCR testing programs have been suspended, also suggest an increase in COVID cases in the province over the past few weeks.

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