Public officials say the need to understand how the virus is spreading is urgent, informing decisions about whether communities can reopen and detecting future outbreaks. Apple and Google said they reached out to hundreds of public health officials for input on the software before it was announced. They said their effort was not built to digitize contact tracing or to replace the human element of public health. An alert is sent if one of the people tests positive for a coronavirus infection, but that information is not shared with public health officials or contact-tracing teams. In California, epidemiologists in charge of contact tracing are ignoring the Apple-Google approach and have decided the best course for contact tracing is to train thousands of people to do the work.

Source: Washington Post May 15, 2020 19:25 UTC