Los Angeles County, LA City and Citizen have partnered to create SafePass, a mobile app that provides COVID-19 contact tracing capabilities for the County’s 10 million residents. Public health officials consider wearing face coverings, physical distancing, contact tracing and testing to be crucial to slowing the coronavirus and protecting vulnerable people from the deadly disease.
SafePass will allow users to self-report their symptoms for COVID-19 and receive notifications and alerts directly from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. All contact tracing data is anonymous, private, encrypted, and deleted after 30 days by Citizen.
County residents are encouraged to download the app to expand local efforts to track COVID-19 in LA County. Following three months of testing with more than 700,000 users, SafePass was recently made available to users across the United States.
Using Bluetooth technology and anonymized data, SafePass tracks any close contacts with other users, and alerts them to potential exposures. Any users who have meaningful contact with another user who later tests positive for COVID-19 will receive a notification to get tested. The app also offers immediate access to eligible users for a free at-home testing kit for those who have been notified of exposure through the app and provides up to date information about all active testing sites in Los Angeles County (terms and conditions apply see citizen.com/tracing/tests). To learn more about SafePass, visit citizen.com/safepass.
For more information about available COVID-19 testing in Los Angeles, visit covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/ or coronavirus.lacity.org/testing.