ABTraceTogether app used to track just 19 COVID cases

That means the contact tracing app has been used in less than 0.05 per cent of all positive cases in Alberta

Alberta’s (Canada) COVID-19 contact-tracing app, which has been downloaded 268,064 times on Apple and Android phones, has only been used to track close contacts of 19 positive cases since it launched in May.

As of Monday, Alberta had 10,031 active cases. Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Alberta labs had completed more than 12,000 tests in a 24-hour period.

Since the pandemic began, 40,189 Albertans have tested positive for COVID-19.

The ABTraceTogether app has been used to identify and notify 70 close contacts in 19 of the province’s positive COVID-19 cases, an Alberta Health spokesperson confirmed.

That means the app has been used in less than 0.05 per cent of all positive cases in Alberta since May.

It’s a matter of scale, Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Tuesday. As more people are adding on to and using the app, then we’re going to have more opportunity for two phones — when two people are in close contact for 15 minutes at a time — being able to have that recording.

We have about 1,000 people per day that are continually adding, jumping onto the app. We’re thankful to those Albertans who are continuing to do that. Our cases are increasing. We are concerned with those rising numbers. This is one of our many tools to relieve and assist the pressures on our contact tracers, Shandro said.

The government and AHS worked with Deloitte to develop the app.

According to the government’s public disclosure of sole-source contracts, Deloitte Inc. was paid $650,000 in April “to customize an existing open source application for the province to perform COVID-19 contact tracing” and $300,000 in April “to build and support deployment” of the ABTraceTogether app.

NDP Opposition leader Rachel Notley is calling on Premier Jason Kenney to apologize for allowing “petty, playground, sandbox, little-boy politics” to hurt Albertans.

What we’ve learned about the Alberta tracing app is that the premier needs to stand up today, he needs to apologize to Albertans. First of all, for lying to them in the middle of a pandemic. Secondly, for putting his own petty political grievances ahead of the health and wellbeing of Albertans. And then, what he must do, is announce that we will be moving forward to enable the federal app here in Alberta, Notley said on Tuesday.

It is absolutely jaw dropping that we are in a situation where our contact tracers — in the very words of Deena Hinshaw — are overwhelmed and we have barred Albertans from getting the benefit of an app that actually works, and justified that decision by lying to them about the real situation with the Alberta app.

All Albertans deserve better from their premier, she said.

Shandro said it’s the NDP that is politicizing this issue.

For the Opposition to be jumping on and undermining any of the tools our province is using to be able to respond to the pandemic is really concerning for me. It’s really appalling for the NDP to do that, for them to be politicizing the issue, Shandro said.

He said the reason the province hasn’t adopted the federal COVID-19 app is because it doesn’t align with Alberta’s contact-tracing system.

Out of the 268,064 people who have downloaded ABTraceTogether, 66 per cent have it on iOS and 34 per cent have it on Android.

The province has stressed a strong contact-tracing system is a cornerstone of Alberta’s pandemic response.

Once installed, the ABTraceTogether app uses a phone’s Bluetooth to log anytime it comes within two metres of another person with the app for a cumulative 15 minutes.