Our New Contact Tracing App Helps Make Offices Safe Again
Last week, Apple and Google announced they were working together to build a contact tracing app to help curb the spread of COVID-19. While it may be some time before they’re ready to launch, we’ve already built an open-source solution you can start implementing yourself—without inviting big tech into your office.
Helping Businesses Build Confidence
Companies may have to wait for the government for permission to open up their offices, but they’re not likely to get much guidance on how.
On one hand, workplaces are potential hotbeds for future outbreaks, with extended hours in close quarters. But they’re also contained environments with limited inputs, so local solutions that would never work on a larger scale might have a real impact in containing and preventing an outbreak.
By having a plan in place before anyone steps foot back in the office, your business can keep people safe instead of being left guessing or hoping for the best.
How Contact Tracing Works
As countries successful in fighting COVID-19 have discovered, you can minimize spread by “tracing” anyone an infected person was in contact with while they were contagious. Contact is usually defined by being less than 6 feet from someone for more than 15 minutes.
Early studies suggest that with contact tracing, “fewer than 1 in 5 cases will generate any subsequent untraced cases.”
Unfortunately, relying on people’s memories and self-reporting to trace contact isn’t likely to get you very far. Technology and device data carry valuable information. But how do you access and use that information in a way that keeps people safe and doesn’t violate trust? Enter: OpenTrace.
Working Together to Stay Safe
OpenTrace is an open-source Workforce Protection Solution available for free on GitHub that makes contact tracing possible by turning your employees’ phones into passive health monitoring devices. Thanks to Bluetooth, no one has to remember who they were in a meeting with earlier this week—the app securely logs that data in case it’s needed in the future.
OpenTrace allows employees to report their symptoms daily and couples it with contact data. If an employee updates their status as having tested positive, other employees who’ve had contact with them are notified that they may have been exposed.
By putting the control of self-reporting in each employee’s palm, a team mindset emerges where everyone is looking out for their coworkers in a new way. OpenTrace empowers your team to work together to report openly and honestly to control outbreaks—all while maintaining a sense of group trust.
OpenTrace can integrate with the apps you already use, like Workday and PeopleSoft, so there is no complicated new technology to learn. After all, this only works if it’s in place from Day One.
OpenTrace can be deployed before you get your teams back to work and will continue to help track the spread of diseases far into the future. It helps your employees feel confident you’re putting their safety and wellness first before going back to work. It’s a win for everyone.
Finding Ways to Adapt
At Kunai, we are mobilized to help businesses overcome any challenge they may face, even when that challenge is nearly invisible. We’re here to help make the process of getting your business back on track painless. Whether it’s integrating OpenTrace or helping with staff reinforcements to keep essential operations afloat, we’re ready to help beat this thing together.
Check out ways Kunai can help during uncertain times: