GVSU Launches New COVID-19 Tracking App For Students

At one point in September, Grand Valley State University had so many active COVID-19 cases, that they temporarily had the student body self-quarantine for two weeks to help slow the spread.  Now according to WZZM 13, GVSU is launching an app to help track COVID-19 around the university. The app is called NOVID.

WZZM 13 says the app is totally anonymous and won't share any personal information of the people who download it and use it and passed a privacy review by the GVSU IT team as well as an independent review from Georgia Tech.  WZZM 13 says the university explained how the app works,

NOVID uses Bluetooth and ultrasound sensors on smartphones to measure how far away other NOVID users are and how long users have interacted. When a user reports a positive case, a token generated by GVSU is used to send notifications to its NOVID network.

School officials told WZZM 13 that they aren't requiring students to download the app, but are hoping that students will want to, to help keep themselves and others safe from the coronavirus.  WZZM 13 says that since August 1st, when the fall semester started, the school has had 964 positive cases. Currently, as of October 7th,  there are only 66 active positive cases related to the university, which is the lowest number they've had since they went into the voluntary "Stay In Place" order, which switched to a "Staying Safe" order on October 2nd through October 16th.