The cancellation of a curling event in Waterloo after a player was notified by the Covid Alert app that they had contact with a person who tested positive for Covid-19 is a win for the hard-working team that developed this app. A win because this cancellation is a case study of exactly how the app should work.
Imagine we did not have the Covid Alert app and the player was infected. The player could transmit the virus to the other players, the players could transmit the virus to patrons and employees at their local pub, the patrons and employees could transmit the virus to their partners who teach at the local school, and the teachers could transmit the virus to students and other teachers. The curling event would be a bubble connected to the pub’s bubble, which in turn is connected to the school’s bubble. And without Covid Alert we could have had yet another dreaded super spreader event. However, what Covid Alert achieved was to separate the curling event, the pub, and the school into separate bubbles.
Hopefully, the player will not test positive. However, close contact presents a risk which the event organizers did not want to take. Kudos to them for showing a level of responsibility commensurate with the potential gravity of the circumstances. Perhaps they adverted several infections in great part thanks to the Covid Alert app. Certainly, the event organizers have set an example in caring for the safety of their community.
The news is bad these days. Ontario is in a second wave, the contact tracing team in Toronto is overwhelmed, but we can still take positive action: please download the Covid Alert app today. It works.
High Park Engineer 