CA Notify Now Available Statewide

California’s smartphone-based exposure notification system is now available statewide, allowing you and those around you an extra layer of protection.

Beginning today, CA Notify is accessible through your smartphone and uses Bluetooth wireless technology to alert you if you’ve been in close contact with someone who recently tested positive for COVID.

Piloted at seven University of California campuses, CA Notify has now expanded statewide to help us all stay safe and reduce viral contraction to others.

How to participate

To participate, simply activate CA Notify on your smartphone and keep your Bluetooth on. Your privacy is protected as your identity is not known and your location is not tracked. To add your iPhone or Android, follow these instructions.

How to report a positive COVID test and notify others with CA Notify

If you get tested for COVID-19 and provide your cell phone number at the time of testing, you will receive a text message from the California Department of Public Health with a verification code that is needed to activate exposure notifications. This message will come from 855-976-8462. If your test result is positive, you can follow the steps in the text message to alert others. 

How this fits in with Stanford Health Check

The Stanford Health Check tool tracks the health of our community by requiring a daily self-report of symptoms, exposure, travel and more for all students, faculty, staff and postdocs who want to access Stanford onsite facilities. Based on one’s responses, the tool provides or denies clearance through an onsite access badge. Additionally, if someone at Stanford tests positive for COVID, the university notifies  known contacts of potential exposure.

CA Notify is not directly connected to Health Check or its related onsite access badge. Any text notifications from CA Notify of possible exposure are not necessarily due to exposure on campus, but could originate from elsewhere. Stanford is not given a record of these notifications and cannot verify the accuracy or predictability of transmission based on the CA Notify program.

The Stanford community should continue to follow our university guidelines pertaining to the pandemic. For more about health information and self-reporting and testing requirements at Stanford, visit healthalerts.stanford.edu.

Learn more about CA Notify

To learn more about how this can help our Stanford community, and how it works with Stanford Health Check, read this November 30 article.

For more information about CA Notify, including FAQs, visit this webpage.