Niagara’s public health department has started using text messaging to notify people who test positive for COVID-19.
The service is part of a larger provincial system instituted to provide quicker notification and improve case and contact management to limit spread of the coronavirus, it said in a release Thursday.
It will also allow close contacts to begin self-isolating more quickly and to get tested.
For anyone who tests positive, the message will include a link to a safe, secure web-based form where symptoms can be described and close contacts identified.
It will also offer guidance on how to self-isolate. The form is voluntary to complete.
The department said messages will only be sent to people who provide their numbers to the testing lab. That information is confidential, and people can opt out by replying with the word STOP.
For more information, phone the Niagara Region Public Health coronavirus line at 905-688-8248 or 1-888-505-6074, press 7.
