COVID Alert app will Help Fight the Pandemic
August 21, 2020
Ontario is the first province to use the COVID Alert app, writes Peter Watson.
One way to return to a more normal pre-COVID-19 existence is to have Contact Tracing.
The smartphone app to facilitate this was launched in Ontario on July 31 and is free on both the Google Play and App stores.
To put this in proper context, let’s summarize the implication COVID-19 has had on our country.
The illness is very contagious, so it spreads easily when people are not practicing social distancing and other advice from health professionals.
People get sick. People die. Many that recover have long-lasting health problems as a result.
We can’t lock down the country. That causes other medical and psychological problems and it absolutely destroys our economy which also has significant negative human side effects.
Health experts have been saying the key to fighting this disease is to be able to quickly identify those that are sick. Isolate the sick and quickly notify others that have been in contact with them so they can seek medical advice.
Canadians, all levels of governments, and businesses want to get back to some sense of normal life. People will get sick, but we cannot allow that sickness to spread like wildfire.
COVID Alert is an important tool in our battle against the pandemic.
But there is a question, a vey big one that is: Will you use the new app?
For COVID Alert to be effective it must get a large part of the population to use the app.
Your privacy is protected, and if you are notified that you were in close contact with someone that has tested positive, it will be your option on how to proceed with that information.
My hope is that we all install the COVID Alert app.
New technology like this will help keep us all safer. Let’s all play our part and use this new and innovative app.
Peter Watson, of Watson Investments MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI offers a weekly financial planning column, Dollars & Sense. He can be contacted through www.watsoninvestments.com