Contact tracing app not widely used
WELLINGTON: As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern prepares the country for possible regional Covid19 outbreaks, the Government’s slow development of hightech contact tracing aids is drawing criticism.
More than $2.6 million has been spent on the NZ Covid Tracer app but each person who has downloaded the app has only used it twice on average.
The Government yesterday signalled it could soon be mandatory for businesses to display QR codes and that money will be spent on promoting wider uptake of the app.
Ms Ardern announced the Covid19 response framework which would result in different regions moving up alert levels if there was an outbreak.
A vital part of that plan was rapidly tracing close contacts, and Ms Ardern implored every New Zealander to download and use the Government’s app.
‘‘We’ve created a system that works. Now we’re asking people to use it,’’ Ms Ardern said.
Since stepping into the health minister role two weeks ago, Chris Hipkins has spoken almost daily about the importance of the app and urged people to use it.
However, daily poster scans have remained minimal — about 10,000 a day. That equates 0.2% of the population, based on the generous assumption each scan is one person using the app.
On average, each of the 596,000 people who have downloaded the app have used it 2.3 times.
A soontobereleased update will make the app compatible with more smartphones and include an option for people to manually add their movements.
Directorgeneral of health Ashley Bloomfield said the app was ‘‘an adjunct’’ to the whole contact tracing system, which would be scaled up by the end of August to make 20,000 phone calls per day.
Dr Bloomfield said even just downloading the app would mean the Health Ministry would have uptodate contact details which would greatly help tracing efforts.
Public health specialist Nick Wilson, a professor at the University of Otago, has countered Ms Ardern’s claim the app is ‘‘a good system’’.
‘‘How can they imagine it’s a good system if noone’s using it. It makes no sense.’’
Digital contact tracing expert Andrew Chen did not agree the system was ‘‘gold standard’’.
‘‘But I certainly agree more people need to use it. They need to promote it.’’
Prof Wilson urged the Government to consider alternatives; he favoured the South Korean strategy which tracked people through their spending and mobile data and could trace contacts within hours.
The Government yesterday could not confirm whether the system was one of the options it was looking into but Ms Ardern said it was keeping ‘‘a very open mind’’ about solutions.
Ms Ardern said the bluetoothenabled CovidTracer Card was still being trialled and officials were considering a wearable ‘‘dongle’’.
Ms Ardern referred questions about what the Government was considering to Minister of Government Digital Services Kris Faafoi.
His office declined an interview yesterday and said ‘‘there isn’t a lot more to say at this point’’.
The growing pressure to improve uptake came as Ms Ardern launched the framework for what New Zealanders could expect if there was community transmission.
While the border measures were effective, she said ‘‘no system is 100% effective’’.
Despite yesterday marking 75 days since the last case of community transmission — with another two cases caught in managed isolation facilities — Ms Ardern said it was important to prepare for a community outbreak.
The framework could result in some suburbs, cities or regions move up alert levels to contain an outbreak so a nationwide lockdown could be avoided. — The New Zealand Herald
SOME Dunedin bar and restaurant owners say they have no problem with mandatory contact tracing, but the difficulty is convincing customers to play ball.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday warned businesses to encourage contact tracing or she might force it upon them.
‘‘My message to businesses is to put that poster up. We’ve always said it was voluntary, but we are at a point where if we don’t see widespread use, we need to take it a step further again,’’ she said.
Her remarks followed a speech outlining how the Government will react if and when community transmission of Covid19 reappears.
She told businesses and all New Zealanders to stop being complacent about the use of the official Covid Tracer smartphone app.
There is no formal requirement for businesses to display QR codes or contact trace under Alert Level 1.
Speight’s Ale House operator and Dunedin Hospitality Association president Mark Scully said a mandatory rule about contact tracing would make it easier to enforce.
‘‘I see the QR codes there but I’m no longer using them personally but if I was told I had to to come in here then I would use them again.’’
It would also make asking customers to sign in easier.
‘‘Sometimes I would rather ask somebody to do something that’s compulsory because I’ve got someone else to blame. ‘Hey it’s the rules, if you want to come in here then please sign in’.’’
At the Speight’s Ale House the QR code poster was up but customers were not being asked to use it.
Biggies Pizza and Suburbia club owner Ian Lindsay had no problem with mandatory contact tracing but said it needed to be easy.
‘‘I’ve got a nightclub that probably holds 200 people and we probably get in and out every Saturday night probably 600 or 700 people.’’
Writing down all those customers’ names and addresses would be difficult, he said.
Ombrellos Kitchen and Bar owner Michelle Lobo said it was customers who were choosing not to participate in contact tracing.
‘‘The businesses I’ve been in to appear to be putting the posters up . . . I don’t see an awful lot of people using it.
‘‘I think people are comfortable at the moment . . . maybe not worrying not quite as much as they were.’’
Otago Southland Employers Association chief executive Virginia Nicholls said the Government needed to make sure there was an app that was easy to use for businesses and the community.
Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said there had been a lot of confusion about QR codes but ‘‘if it is easy to get a QR code, then business are happy to put them up’’.
There was now an easy process to download QR code posters, and retailers were using them, but customer uptake was ‘‘light’’, he said. — Additional reporting BusinessDesk