NZ Hospitality Outlets Planning to Use a Range of Tracing Apps

New Zealand restaurants and bars are gearing up with the tech industry to use a range of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in alert level 2.

A software leader says signs are the NZ government will be happy without having one contact tracing app to rule them all.

Across the hospitality and retail sectors, businesses are desperate to get details of what the government wants at alert level 2.

Hospitality NZ chief operating officer Julie White has 3000 restaurants on her back, asking her how sitdown dining will work.

“Hospitality NZ is inundated from our members, asking us for greater clarification on level 2,” White said.

“What does a bubble look like when you’re dining in a restaurant?”

But she said she did not know because the government had not responded to her many questions.

Wellington hospitality software provider Jonny McKenzie has heard from the Ministry of Health (MOH).

He said the MOH had given him confidence to push on and release his app based on a QR code-at-thedoor system.

There may well still be a place for a single big national app that traced people in public places - streets and libraries for example, McKenzie said.

“We’re learning that it’s hard to build a one size fits all model and what we’re watching is that other countries are adopting more technologies and in our case we think that that’s what this country is going to have to do as well - look for multiple solutions...”

But it was not here yet and neither the hospitality or retail sectors thought the lack of it would hold back alert level 2 business openings.