app. on december 14, 2020, apple released ios 12.5, bringing support for exposure notifications to older iphones. the last information update on the “exposure notification systems” partnership was a year end review issued by google in december 2020: "we plan to keep you updated here with new information again next year". nothing has however been issued on the one year anniversary of the launch of the “exposure notification interface” api in spite of important changes on the pandemic front such as vaccination, variants, digital health passports, app adoption challenges as well as growing interest for tracking qr codes (and notifying from that basis) on a mostly airborne transmitted virus. the frequently asked questions (faq) published document has not been revised since may 2020. basic support remains provided through the apps store released by authorized public health agencies, including enforcement of the personal privacy protection framework as demonstrated on the uk nhs challenge in support of their contact tracers. in june 2021, google faced allegations that it had automatically downloaded massachusetts' "massnotify" app to android devices without user consent. google clarified that it had not actually downloaded the app to user devices, and that google play services was being used to deploy an en express configuration profile that would allow it to be enabled via the google settings app without needing to download a separate app. adoption as of may 21, at least 22 countries had received access to the protocol. switzerland and austria were among the first to back the protocol. on april 26, after initially backing pepp-pt, germany announced it would back exposure notification, followed shortly after by ireland and italy. despite already adopting the centralised bluetrace protocol, australia's department of health and digital transformation agency were investigating whether the protocol could be implemented to overcome limitations of its covidsafe app. on may 25, switzerland became the first country to launch an app leveraging the protocol, swisscovid, beginning with a small pilot group. in england, the national health service (nhs) trialed both an in-house app on a centralized platform developed by its nhsx division, and a second app using exposure notification. on june 18, the nhs announced that it would focus on using exposure notification to complement manual contact tracing, citing tests on the isle of wight showing that it had better cross-device compatibility (and would also be compatible with other european approaches), but that its distance calculations were not as reliable as the centralized version of the app, an issue which was later rectified. later, it was stated that the app would be supplemented by qr codes at venues. a study of the impact of exposure notification in england and wales estimated that it averted 8,700 (95% confidence interval 4,700–13,500) deaths out of the 32,500 recorded from its introduction on 24 september 2020 to 31 december 2020. canada launched its covid alert app, co-developed in partnership with blackberry limited and shopify, on july 31 in ontario. as of february 2022, only around 57,000 positive cases had been reported via the app, leading some critics to dismiss it as a failure. in may 2020, covid watch launched the first calibration and beta testing pilot of the gaen apis in the united states at the university of arizona. in aug 2020, the app launched publicly for a phased roll-out in the state of arizona. the u.s. association of public health laboratories (aphl) stated in july 2020 that it was working with apple, google, and microsoft on a national reporting server for use with the protocol, which it stated would ease adoption and interoperability between states. in august 2020, google stated that at least 20 u.s. states had expressed interest in using the protocol. in alabama, the alabama department of public health, university of alabama at birmingham, and the university of alabama system deployed the "guidesafe" app for university students returning to campus, which includes exposure notification features. on august 5, the virginia department of health released its "covidwise" app — making it the first u.s. state to release an exposure notification-based app for the general public. north dakota and wyoming released an en app known as "care19 alert", developed by proudcrowd and using the aphl server (the app is a spin-off from an existing location logging application it had developed, based on one it had developed primarily for use by students travelling to attend college football away games). maryland, nevada, virginia, and washington, d.c. have announced plans to use en express. in september, delaware, new jersey, new york, and pennsylvania all adopted "covid alert" apps developed by nearform, which are based on its covid tracker ireland app. later that month, the norwegian institute of public health announced that it would lead development of an exposure notification-based app for the country, which replaces a centralized app that had ceased operations in june 2020 after the norwegian data protection authority ruled that it violated privacy laws. in nov 2020, bermuda launched the wehealth bermuda app developed by wehealth, a public benefit corporation, which was based on the covid watch app released in arizona. country region/state name announced/released notes austria stopp corona app june 26, 2020 brazil coronavírus-sus july 31, 2020 bermuda wehealth bermuda nov 24, 2020 belgium coronalert october 1, 2020 (public) september 2, 2020 (pilot phase) canada covid alert july 31, 2020 available in new brunswick, newfoundland and labrador, ontario, manitoba, saskatchewan, quebec, prince edward island, and nova scotia. alberta and british columbia have declined its use. czech republic erouška (emask) september 17, 2020 since version 2.1 denmark smittestop june 18, 2020 estonia hoia august 20, 2020 finland koronavilkku august 31, 2020 germany corona-warn-app june 16, 2020 gibraltar beat covid gibraltar june 18, 2020 based on covid tracker ireland and will interoperate with it. iceland rakning c-19 may 12, 2021 gean implementation activated in may 2021, replaced previous version of app which used gps tracking stored on-device launched in april 2020. ireland covid tracker ireland july 7, 2020 italy immuni june 1, 2020 japan cocoa june 19, 2020 jersey jersey covid alert september 21, 2020 latvia apturi covid may 29, 2020 lebanon ma3an july 16, 2020 netherlands coronamelder october 10, 2020 (full release) new zealand nz covid tracer december 10, 2020 (full release) norway smittestopp december 21, 2020 replaced a version of the app that was suspended earlier in the year due to scrutiny from the local norwegian data protection authority. philippines staysafe.ph march 29, 2021 gaen implementation activated in april 2021 poland protego safe june 9, 2020 update to existing encounter logging app. portugal stayaway covid august 28, 2020 russia gosuslugi. covid tracker november 23, 2020 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.minsvyaz.gosuslugi.exposurenotificationdroid south africa covid alert sa september 1, 2020 spain radar covid june 30, 2020 (beta test) switzerland swisscovid may 26, 2020 (pilot phase) taiwan 臺灣社交距離 may 3, 2021 thailand thai covid alert april 26, 2022 united kingdom england wales nhs covid-19 september 24, 2020 northern ireland stopcovid ni july 30, 2020 interoperates with covid tracker ireland. scotland protect scotland september 11, 2020 based on covid tracker ireland and will interoperate with it. united states alabama guidesafe august 3, 2020 targeting university of alabama students as part of a larger program under the same name. alaska alaska covid enx january 20, 2022 arizona covid watch may 28, 2020 (attenuation and dynamic risk testing) august 19, 2020 (released) targeting university of arizona in a phased roll-out for the state of arizona. california ca notify december 10, 2020 colorado co exposure notifications october 25, 2020 connecticut covid alert ct november 12, 2020 delaware covid alert de september 15, 2020 based on covid tracker ireland. guam guam covid alert september 10, 2020 based on the pathcheck foundation's gaen mobile project hawaii aloha safe alert november 11, 2020 based on the pathcheck foundation's gaen mobile project louisiana covid defense january 22, 2021 based on the pathcheck foundation's gaen mobile project maryland md covid alert october 10, 2020 massachusetts massnotify uses en express. michigan mi covid alert october 15, 2020 (michigan state university pilot) november 9, 2020 (statewide) minnesota covidaware mn november 23, 2020 missouri mo/notify july 29, 2021 targeting washington university in st. louis in a phased roll-out for the state of missouri. new jersey covid alert nj september 30, 2020 based on covid tracker ireland. new york covid alert ny september 30, 2020 based on covid tracker ireland. north carolina slowcovidnc september 22, 2020 the app was shut down on or before august 19, 2022. north dakota care19 alert august 13, 2020 pennsylvania covid alert pa september 24, 2020 based on covid tracker ireland. utah ut exposure notifications february 16, 2021 virginia covidwise august 5, 2020 washington wa notify november 30, 2020 wisconsin wi exposure notification december 23, 2020 wyoming care19 alert august 14, 2020 uruguay coronavirus uy june 15, 2020 alternatives some countries, such as france, have pursued centralized approaches to digital contact tracing, in order to maintain records of personal information that can be used to assist in investigating cases. the french government asked apple in april 2020 to allow apps to perform bluetooth operations in the background, which would allow the government to create its own system independent of exposure notification. on august 9, the canadian province of alberta announced plans to migrate to the en-based covid alert from its bluetrace-based abtracetogether app. this did not occur, and on november 6 premier of alberta jason kenney announced that the province would not do so, arguing that abtracetogether was "from our view, simply a better and more effective public health tool", and that they would be required to phase out abtracetogether if they did switch. british columbia has also declined to adopt covid alert, with provincial health officer bonnie henry stating that covid alert was too "non-specific". australia's officials have stated its covidsafe, which is based on singapore's bluetrace, will not be shifting from manual intervention. in the united states, states such as california and massachusetts declined to use the technology, opting for manual contact tracing. california later reversed course and adopted the system in december 2020. chinese vendor huawei (which cannot include google software on its current android products due to u.s. sanctions) added a os-level dp-3t api known as "contact shield" to its huawei mobile services stack in june 2020, which the company states is intended to be interoperable with exposure notification.