While Toronto joins the rest of the Canadian province of Ontario to reopen indoor food in restaurants and bars, the province has also launched an app to help track COVID-19 cases and restrict exposure. Such measures may be necessary, depending on the extent to which pandemic blockade relief, in effect in Ontario since mid-March, will affect the reopening of restaurants, cinemas, bars, and other public spaces for indoor use today. Restaurants in Canada have been restricted to takeaway or home delivery since then, leading to approximately one in 10 restaurants permanently ending nationwide in April, according to the Restaurant Industry Association of Canada. According to a survey of its members in July, the agreement said 31% said an expected return to profitability would take seven months to a year, while another 36% said it would take between a year and 18 months.
The return to interior catering occurs the same day the application is launched to the public. COVID-ALERT is a government initiative designed to help restrict the spread of the pandemic, available at no fees to Apple and Android users. “COVID Alert is helping us break the cycle of infection. The app can inform others about imaginable exposures before symptoms appear,” reads on the Government of Canada’s website.
The app works via Bluetooth to exchange random codes with phones in the region, comparing them to the codes of a user who has reported a positive COVID-19 verification (the report is done through a single key access provided through a local gym). Once a case is reported, the app notifies all phones on which the app is installed that they are within two meters (approximately 6 1/2 feet) of that user for more than 15 minutes in two weeks. The notification includes commands about the following steps.
Although there were initial privacy considerations about the scope of the app when the assignment was first announced in June, officials note that the app is voluntary and is a notification tool, which is a touch search initiative. The app does not use GPS and does not track the user’s location, name, address, fitness data or phone contacts, in accordance with the app’s privacy policy. Collect and sell encrypted random codes on the user’s phone and other nearby phones at outlets for 14 days, and will have to be released with the user’s permission.
Since the app is completely voluntary, there is some doubt as to whether mandatory widespread adoption will be implemented through users, according to a Canadian Press article. In addition, lately the app is only available for notifications from Ontario residents, similar efforts have been followed in Alberta (via the ABTraceTogether app).
While this application is different from touch-seeking initiatives, they are components of a broader government plan to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. According to a Statistics Canada study published today, only a few more Canadian respondents supported these programs through public fitness officials. “A quarter (25 according to the penny) of Canadians said it would be ‘very likely’ that they used touch search programs, and nearly a third (31 according to the penny) said it would be ‘pretty likely’ to use them,” according to Statistics Canada. “Of the rest of the respondents, 13% was “somewhat unlikely,” 22 percent was “very unlikely” and 9% didn’t know if they would use those programs.”
Although the province noticed a slight increase in instances (134 new instances were reported), it kept the instances below a hundred for two consecutive days this week, according to the CBC.
I am a Toronto-based freelancer who has spent the more than 18 years traveling the world as a magazine editor, and a life to consume and explore to the fullest in the world.
I am an independent editor based in Toronto who has spent the more than 18 years traveling the world as a magazine editor, and a life eating and exploring the most attractive dishes in the world. Former editor of several magazines of the national industry on food, food and fashion, I have covered global trends in local and luxury flavors, as well as the chefs, craftsmen and flavor makers who drive them, in Asia, America and Europe. Whether looking for herbal witches in Germany or looking for the best batch of bourbon, I’m looking for new reports on restaurants, wines and spirits and trips. I also put my master’s degree in communication into intelligent use through master journalism training and artistic writing for the next generation of explorers. I’m tweeting @leslie_wu