Hawaii Launches App to Slow Down Rise in COVID Cases The state health department reported pandemic-related fatalities have risen to nearly 300 with more than 22,000 cases. The state hopes 15 percent of the population will download the mobile alert tool. Nina Wu, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser | January 7, 2021 | News
(TNS) The state Health Department officially launched its new AlohaSafe Alert app, along with a new media campaign targeting Hawaii s youth on Wednesday as the daily case count and death toll continued to rise.
On Wednesday, the department reported, bringing the state s totals since the start of the pandemic to 299 fatalities and 22, 310 cases.
The 10 additional coronavirus-related deaths occurred between Nov. 12 and Dec. 19, and involved seniors with underlying conditions. All but one had been hospitalized. On Oahu, they included four men in their 60s, one of whom died at home ; two men in their
Location tracking apps. Spyware to enforce quarantine. Immunity passports. Throughout 2020, governments around the world deployed invasive surveillance technologies to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
But heavy-handed tactics like these undercutpublictrustingovernment, precisely when trust is needed most. They also invade our privacy and chill our freespeech. And all too often, surveillance technologies disparatelyburdenpeopleofcolor.
In the United States, EFF and other digital rights advocates turned back some of the worst proposals. But they’ll be back in 2021. Until the pandemic ends, we must hold the line against ill-considered surveillance technologies.
Automated contact tracing apps
Contact tracing is a common public health response to contagious disease. In its traditional form, officials interview an infected person to determine who they had contact with, and then interview those people, too. Many have sought to automate this process with new technologies. But an app will