Pa. sending covid-19 alerts on cell phones

The first covid-19 alert sent via the national Wireless Emergency Alert system landed on cellphones Wednesday, interrupting a live briefing by Allegheny County officials on the local rise in covid-19 cases.

“In PA, covid-19 rates are rising and hospitals could soon be at capacity,” the alert read. “Stay home if possible. If you must go out, maintain social distance, wear a mask, wash your hands for 20 seconds. Stay up to date on the spread of covid in your community so you can protect your loved ones with the Covid Alert PA app.”

Gov. Tom Wolf earlier in the day announced the state would begin using the alert system to send out information about the surging pandemic. The system allows cellphone users to receive geographically targeted messages regarding public safety. It is the same system that sends out AMBER Alerts and severe weather alerts.

Future alerts could be targeted to certain regions in Pennsylvania, Wolf said. Their content can be in both English and Spanish, and the alerts are a combined effort between the Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. The Federal Communication Commission authorized the state to use the system to push out covid-19 information.

“WEA is one more way to reach as many Pennsylvanians as we can to provide timely information on covid-19,” Wolf said. “This tool is another tool in our toolkit to fight the pandemic and unite against covid.”

Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, was speaking about the rise in cases when her phone and the phones of others in the room rang shrilly with the alert. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald read the alert aloud.

“Isn’t it appropriate that in the middle of this everybody in the state got (an alert),” Fitzgerald said.