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OTTAWA: On June 17, Health Canada dismantled its COVID Alert app, designed to restrict the spread of COVID-19. The app was disabled and the government announced that users can remove the app from their devices. The decommissioning of the app is some other indication that the Canadian government is relaxing its reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health Canada introduced the app in July 2020, after weeks of waiting, as a national exposure notification tool. More than 6. 9 million people living in Canada have downloaded the app, but only 57,000 users who tested positive for COVID-19 have uploaded their results. The concept was that other people who tested positive for COVID-19 would tell others about the imaginable exposure. The app was designed to tell a user if someone they’ve been in contact with in the past 2 weeks has tested positive.
In a statement, Health Canada said, “While the pandemic is not over, the resolution to dismantle COVID Alert comes after a thorough review following discussions with provinces and territories about the continued evolution of public fitness systems that vary in jurisdiction. “
The company also noted that since polymerase chain reaction verification in Canada declined in recent months, the app issued fewer single-use keys, so users received fewer notifications of potential exposures. The one-time key is a unique code that triggers the app notification. function and alerts other people who may have been in close contact with someone who tested positive. A few months after the app’s launch, CTV News reported that some users don’t get their unique keys after entering the results of their verification.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s workplace has announced the launch of COVID Alert. However, the decommissioning of the app was announced in a fitness canada press release.
The decommissioning of the app comes as signs point to a possible buildup in COVID-19 activity, Public Health Director Theresa Tam, MD, said at a news conference on June 17. Far from it, stable innovations in epidemiological signs are positive and welcome news, and they further easing and suspension of measures,” Tam said.
“While we are cautiously positive about the existing trajectory, we are seeing the first symptoms of an accumulation of activity in some regions. In addition, there are symptoms of expansion in several lines of the Emergency Omicron subgroup, adding BA2. 12. 1, BA. 4 and BA. 5, which demonstrated greater merit of expansion in immune evasion to BA. 1 and BA2. “
The last two lineages are the original variants of Omicron. BA. 2. 12. 1 has a dominant variant in recent weeks. The prevalence of BA. 4 and BA. 5, Omicron’s new subvariants, has increased in recent weeks, according to Health Canada data. The same data shows that new weekly cases tend to decline after a slight increase in early April. As of June 17, there have been 3. 9 million COVID-19 cases and 41,363 deaths in Canada since the beginning of the pandemic.
Tam said she wasn’t worried about the resolution to dismantle the COVID Alert app.
“I think it’s vital with such a big public health challenge that inventions are carried out,” he said. tool in the existing era of applications to consult the population”.
Tam added, “I’m sure there will be classes to learn, as it would be great to use some of those technologies as a component of our ongoing monitoring of outbreaks and pandemics. “
Canada, like the United States, has taken steps to oppose the restrictions. The government recently suspended mandatory COVID-19 random testing at airports. On June 20, the government suspended the vaccination requirement for domestic travel. regulated workers, such as airline employees. Travelers entering the country will need to have evidence of vaccination.
“We don’t expect our program to be linear,” Tam said of the government’s COVID-19 strategy.
“There will be a wave,” said Dan Gregson, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine in Alberta. to see how those new variants emerge. “
He said the public should be ready for “non-pharmaceutical interventions” such as wearing a mask and social distancing, to be put in place if the threat of a new wave of infections increases.
Richard Mark Kirkner is a medical journalist in Philadelphia.
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Main image: E/Getty Images
Figure 1: Health Canada
Image 2: University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine
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