NZ Covid Tracer: What our coronavirus contact tracing app looks like
The initial version of the Government's new coronavirus contact tracing app has been formally launched on Wednesday morning, although it was available to download overnight.
Kiwis who download the NZ Covid Tracer app can create a "digital diary" of the places they visit by scanning QR codes displayed at the entrances to business premises, other organisations and public buildings.
But it does not replace the need for businesses to keep records as well.
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People can choose to also register their contact information through the app so the National Close Contact Service (NCCS) can get in touch if it needs to.
"That (the contact details) is the information, and the only information, that is then held by the Ministry of Health, and by the ministry only. It is only used if needed for contact tracing," Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.
"So it's not available to anyone else for enforcement or any other actions."
The contact details were the "most important and useful thing for us", Bloomfield told Radio NZ on Wednesday morning. "So that if you are identified as a possible contact we can get in touch with you."
Any information about an app user's movements that the user decided to record with the app would be stored securely on the user's phone and deleted automatically after 31 days, Bloomfield said earlier in a statement.
"It’s your choice whether you share any of this information with contact tracers, and any information you do share will be used only for public health purposes and never for enforcement."
When announcing the app on Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described it as a digital diary, to help aid our manual contact tracing efforts, but not replace them.
Businesses must keep contact tracing records to open at level 2, which led to a flurry of apps being launched, or shoppers having to fill out physical forms.
The Government app is just the first version of what is planned. Bloomfield said it would be updated as new features were developed.
“One of our key public health responses to Covid-19 is to identify, trace and isolate cases and close contacts to prevent further spread. This app will help us do that. The more Kiwis that download and use it the better placed we are to act promptly to keep other New Zealanders safe," Bloomfield said.
In his Radio NZ interview he said the idea of the app was to help people remember where they had been. "Because this is one of the things we find with contact tracing... Many of us will have a diary but even that doesn't have the detail, you know if we've popped out to the shops at lunchtime.
"We can't remember five or six days ago when we were there and where we went. So the information on the app will just trigger people to remember where they were and when. And then that will be able to be used to identify if there may be other possible contacts."
The Ministry of Health said it had consulted the Privacy Commissioner to ensure NZ Covid Tracer protected users' privacy. The app had also been through independent security testing.
"Any personal information you choose to share with contact tracers will never be shared with any agencies outside the health sector or used for enforcement purposes," the ministry said on its website.
The app was just one part of contact tracing and was designed to support rather than replace existing contact tracing processes.
The prime minister has said the new app would ensure national consistency.
An update planned for early June will enable users to electronically transmit their digital diary to the NCCS, enable a user to receive a notification if they had been at the same location at the same time as someone who had Covid-19, and enable the user to carry out a daily health check-in if they were in isolation or quarantine.
"Public health units (PHUs) and the NCCS will continue to lead contact tracing in New Zealand. PHUs have tripled their capacity and can now deal with up to 185 cases a day, while the NCCS now has more than 200 staff who can make up to 10,000 phone calls to close contacts."
A Ministry of Health spokesperson told Stuff in a statement that the app was submitted to Google and Apple's app stores for processing on Tuesday evening.
"In this instance the processing time was efficient, and it is now live in both stores for New Zealanders to download."
The app is an interim solution, and other technological contact tracing solutions are being developed, similar to what has been used overseas.
Singapore has been using a bluetooth app called TraceTogether, which logs contacts who come within two metres of each other, and Australia is using a similar app called Covidsafe.
Stuff