The new app alerts New Yorkers if they have been near someone with COVID-19

There really is is being An app for everything.

Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday announced a new smartphone app that could alert residents of New York and four other states if they contacted someone. He tested positive for the Coronavirus.

W.This app will do is that it will tell you if you are within six feet of a person who has tested positive, and if you are within six feet of a person who has tested positive for 10 minutes, Cuomo said, during a conference call. From the free program called COVID Alert.

The app works in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

“ The way it will work is when a person tests positive, the Ministry of Health contacts that person, asks that person if they have an iPhone, and gives this person a password, and this person writes the password for his phone and then any other phone that comes on after Six feet of this phone is on the app, “Cuomo said.

The app is also available for Android phones.

It cost nearly $ 700,000 to develop, sourced from federal funding and support from the charitable organization of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who helped fund the state’s contact tracing program.

The governor and his team stressed that privacy is crucial, and that there are no names, location data or other personally identifiable information.

“The COVID New York alert doesn’t track your location, movement or use the Global Positioning System (GPS),” said senior assistant Como Melissa DeRosa. “It does not collect or store any personal information.

“The application is completely anonymous.”

Instead, DeRosa said, “It uses Bluetooth to sense proximity to another phone with the same app, but not the geographic location.”

Google, Apple, and Linux Foundation helped develop the app.

The two previous companies had already introduced a high-tech hand for contact tracing in states like Maryland, Virginia and Nevada.

“I think it will not only take contact tracing to a new level, but give people the convenience,” said Cuomo of the app.