Tracing app available in less than fortnight

WELLINGTON: The Government has promised that a Covid19 contacttracing app will be available in less than a fortnight.

The announcement comes as the Australian Government launched its own voluntary app, designed to limit the spread of the virus through an early notification system.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said in recent weeks technology would be part of the answer to speeding up contact tracing.

‘‘It [the app] will have basic functionality, but even that will be important, as it will help update our national health database with the user’s contact details,’’ Ms Ardern said earlier this month.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday launched the COVIDSafe app — an app he said will ‘‘save lives and save livelihoods’’.

The app is voluntary, but Mr Morrison is encouraging everyone in Australia to download it. By yesterday, about 2 million people had.

Once downloaded, the app requests the user’s phone number, name, agerange and post code .

It then connects to other phones which also have the app and records anyone with whom the user has been in close proximity for more than 15 minutes.

If anyone in this category tests positive, the user will receive a notification, letting them know they have been in contact with someone with Covid19.

Mr Morrison said COVIDSafe would speed up the process of identifying people who have been in close contact with someone diagnosed with coronavirus, quickly stopping further spread of the virus in the community.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health said the contacttracing app being released in two weeks would be the first version of the app, and would enable people to preregister contact details to help contact tracers in their work.

‘‘The app itself is undergoing further development,’’ the ministry said.

That included work on the use of scannable QR codes, which would allow people to check in at businesses or other destinations. — The New Zealand Herald