North Dakota Launches Care19 App to Combat COVID-19

Care19 is currently available for Apple products and is coming soon for Android users.

BISMARCK, N.D.–Gov. Doug Burgum announced the launch of a free mobile app called Care19 during his daily COVID-19 press briefing on Tuesday.

The North Dakota Department of Health and Gov. Burgum partnered with ProudCrowd, creators of the Bison Tracker app, to create the new app.

Care19 is meant to help the NDDoH identify individuals who may have come in contact with people who have tested positive for COVID-19, and therefore reduce the spread of the virus more effectively.

People who download the app will be given a random ID number which the app will then track throughout the day. Only locations a person visits for more than 10 minutes at a time will be stored in the app.

Gov. Doug Burgum says, “This is an opportunity for North Dakotans to be leaders in the worldwide response to COVID-19. Our goal is for at least 50,000 North Dakotans to download the app. The more people who participate, the more helpful the data will be. The aggregated informaiton this app is gathering can save lives. Embracing this technology is one more way we can show that we’re all in this together.”

The random ID numbers assigned do not contain any personal information and people who test positive for COVID-19 must provide their consent for the NDDOH to have access to their information.

Care19 is currently available for Apple products and is coming soon for Android users.

For more information about how the Care19 app works, visit: health.nd.gov/care19