We have been successful as a community at keeping the COVID-19 virus at bay. Effective vaccines are on the horizon, but for now we are still dealing with the pandemic and a recent increase in provincial and local cases.

To assist us all in keeping Neyaashiinigmiing safe and healthy, the Community Emergency Response Group and the Council recommend that anyone with a smartphone install the COVID Alert mobile app on their device.

The COVID Alert app notifies you when you may have been exposed to someone with the COVID-19 virus. The app is simple, secure and does not store or reveal any confidential or identifying information.

Links to downloads from both Google Play and the Apple App Store, as well as much more information are available at https://covid-19.ontario.ca/covidalert.

How It Works

The app works by creating random, unique codes on your phone. Your codes are exchanged automatically and anonymously with other users of the app in your vicinity. Your phone stores your random codes, and the codes of the people you come in contact with, for 14 days.

If you test positive for COVID-19, you will be given a unique key to enter your app. The app will then upload your own anonymous, random codes.

Every day, when you are connected to the internet, the app will check the list of uploaded codes of users who have tested positive, to see if you have stored any of them, indicating that you were near them at some time in the past 14 days.

The COVID Alert app will then alert you and provide advice on what to do next. Because the app does not store or transmit any identifying information, it is not possible to know when or where you were exposed.