SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Apple and Google announced Friday they are partnering together to disseminate a tool that will alert its users if they have come into close contact with someone who has coronavirus, according to a report.
Known as contact-tracing, the technology is designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus by telling users if they should isolate themselves or quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person, Bloomberg reports.
The technology will be built into the iOS and Android operating systems in two phases.
By mid-May, both iPhone and Android users will be able to wirelessly exchange anonymous information via apps run by public health authorities.
The second phase will take longer, according to officials. This is when both Google and Apple will add the technology directly into their operating systems so the contract-tracing tool works without the user having to download an app.
Users will have to opt in.
At last check, the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus stands at over 100,000.
Deaths in the U.S. reached about 18,000, putting it on track to overtake Italy as the country with the highest death toll, and about a half-million Americans were confirmed infected. More than 40% of the dead in the U.S were in New York state.
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