VDH’s COVIDWISE exposure notification app joins national key server to increase effectiveness across state lines

Virginia joins D.C., 15 other states participating in the unified server; COVIDWISE surpasses 885,000 downloads

(Richmond, Va.) — Virginia’s first-in-the-nation COVID-exposure notification app will now work across DC and all 15 states that have such an app. More than one in ten Virginians have downloaded and are using COVIDWISE, which notifies people if they have been physically close to someone who tested positive. COVIDWISE, Virginia’s free COVID-19 Exposure Notifications app, is now participating with the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ (APHL) National Key Server, allowing COVIDWISE interoperability with Washington, D.C. and other states’ apps that also use the server. Now COVIDWISE can communicate with other state notification apps to share anonymous bits of information or “exposure notification keys” using a national server that will enable users to find out when they may have been exposed by users from other states.