• by Ray Schultz , August 27, 2020

Twilio has been chosen to power contact tracing for more than 28 cities, states, and universities, the company said on Thursday. 

These entities include the Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology, the Public Health Department for Philadelphia, and the Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications of New York City.  

Twilio will support contact tracing needs for around 156 million people -- nearly half the U.S. population, the company says.  

The Twilio contact center enables thousands of remote agents to reach out to patients via email, phone and text, it adds.  

In addition, they can send messaging-based alerts through email, Twilio Voice, SMS or WhatsApp. These prompt patients to fill out secure surveys on their symptoms, the company says.

The purpose is to engage people who have tested positive for COVID-19, to limit the spread of the illness and to better understand its patterns of infection.  

The company hopes to help “some of the hardest-hit areas across the public and private sector, enabling organizations to use flexible communications to engage constituents and keep communities safer,” states Glenn Weinstein, chief customer officer at Twilio. 

Weinstein adds that “contact tracing is a proven public health tool, and this pandemic requires us to operate at unprecedented scale.”