By WKTV Staff
In an effort to obtain information to track potential COVID-19 hotspots in Kent County, the county health department today launched a new web-based survey for residents — keepmihealthy.org.
The “secure, anonymous, web-based survey” — which does not required an app download — will provide health officials with “valuable data that could potentially identify future COVID-19 ‘hot spots’ in Kent County,” according to the announcement.
“Our ability to respond to this pandemic depends upon timely, accurate, and multi-sourced data,” Kent County Health Department Director Adam London said in supplied material. “The information gathered through this survey will provide us with an additional layer of data to make strategic decisions on how we use our resources.”
Local technology company OST, which started in Grand Rapids in 1997 but now has a worldwide footprint, actually came to Kent County with the idea.
“We would like to thank local technology developer OST for turning this community health screening concept into reality,” London said. “Without being asked, they identified a need, reached out to us and other community partners, and quickly developed an easy-to-use and effective screening tool.”
The survey questions are simple — as simple as “Are you experiencing any of the COVID-19 symptoms or not?”
To complete the survey, residents will be asked to answer four personal identification questions including year of birth, gender, county, and zip code.
All data will be kept confidential and housed in a secure database, according to the announcement. Under licensed agreements, health care professionals, hospitals, and local health departments will have access to the anonymous data to learn more about the community’s health in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID- 19.
To complete the survey, go to keepmihealthy.org/ and click “Get Started!”
Upon completion, residents can optionally provide their mobile phone number to receive a daily text reminder to take the survey.
“By taking the survey daily, it will ensure health officials are making decisions based on the most current information available,” according to the statement.
To learn more, review the frequently asked questions document at keepmihealthy.org/faq.
A Spanish version of the application will be released shortly.
