After previously favouring a made-in-Quebec solution, the province’s government is now encouraging Quebecers to download the COVID Alert app that’s in use in other parts of the country.
At the end of September, the Quebec Government said that the rapid increase in recent cases had forced it to use the federal app. The province now sits at 79,650 cases, with 1,191 new cases being recorded on October 4th.
The COVID Alert app has been in use in Ontario since the summer. It utilizes a Bluetooth-based system to maintain an anonymous list of all the phones it’s been near lately. Then, if one of the devices on the list reports that its owner is COVID-19 positive, the app will alert you so you can get tested.
Today, the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec confirmed that COVID Alert, Canada’s #COVID19 exposure notification app, is now available in Quebec. Learn more: https://t.co/9KsGjKFi3L pic.twitter.com/o4Vnb5KEXo
— CanadianPM (@CanadianPM) October 5, 2020
If you want to learn more about the app and its privacy guidelines, you can read our explainer here.
If you live in Quebec and want to try the app, you can download it for free on Android from the Google Play Store and for iPhone from the App Store.
The app is already available in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, many Atlantic provinces and Saskatchewan.
Source: Government of Canada
