Australians are told they will return to normal life soon if they download Covid-19 app

Millions of more Australians need to download the coronavirus tracking app if they wish to return to normal life soon, the government has said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed 3.45million people have already downloaded CovidSafe since it was released on Monday – but more downloads are needed in order to ease coronavirus restrictions.

‘We need that tool so we can open the economy. So if you haven’t downloaded the app yet, download it’, he said.

The National Cabinet is scheduled to meet on Tuesday and Friday next week, with the aim of making an announcement on May 8 about lifting baseline restrictions.

Mr Morrison told Aussies if they wanted to go back to the pub soon they must download the app.

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CovidSafe went live at 6pm on Sunday and has been downloaded 3.45million times as Australians hope to further flatten the infection curve

‘Now if that isn’t an incentive for Australians to download CovidSafe on a Friday, I don’t know what is,’ he said.

‘So it’s over to you Australia.’

CovidSafe only works on smartphones and can be downloaded from the Apple or Google app stores. The use of the app is voluntary, but has been met with resistance from some critics due to privacy concerns.

The app uses Bluetooth signal strength of other COVIDSafe users you come into contact with which logged every two hours in the National COVIDSafe data store.

No location data will be collected at any time and contact data stored on a device will be deleted after 21 days.

Mr Morrison said he was eager to get Australians back to work as the number of new cases remain consistently below 20 every day.

‘We need to restart our economy, we need to restart our society. We can’t keep Australia under the doona,’ he said.

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The Bavarian bar at Manly Wharf is seen closed on March 25 (pictured) due to the coronavirus lockdown, but ministers hinted restrictions may soon be lifted

In a positive sign, Mr Morrison said the National Cabinet will discuss ‘how conditions can be eased’ – rather than whether they can be eased.

But he refused to say which restrictions would be relaxed.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told the National Cabinet that 15 conditions should be met before restrictions could be eased.

WHAT DOES MY BUSINESS NEED TO DO TO REOPEN SOON?

Businesses are encouraged to create a ‘COVID-safe workplace’ to reopen.

• Limit the number of people allowed in-store at any one time
• Encourage customers to shop alone
• Schedule deliveries to avoid crowding
• Clean regularly-touched surfaces, such as door handles, lift buttons and hand rails
• Use floor markings to remind customers to maintain a distance of 1.5m
• Encourage customers to download the COVIDSafe contact tracing app

The Prime Minister said 11 out of 15 conditions have been met already – but urged more Australians to download the contract tracing app.

‘Downloading the app is the main obstacle now,’ he said.

The conditions focus on testing, contact tracing, and the preparedness of health services.

Professor Murphy said cohorts of people such as health workers, teachers and people having elective surgery would be tested, with their consent, for the virus even if they do not have symptoms.

‘We need to test more people. If we are going to get on top of those small outbreaks.

‘We cannot afford to have an outbreak that takes off so that we get a second wave when we reduce restrictions such as a number of other countries have seen. So our testing has to be very good.’

On Monday Mr Morrison said he ‘cannot see’ international travel and watching sport in stadiums resuming ‘anytime soon’.

The Prime Minister said allowing travel would be too risky while other nations suffer high case numbers – although an exception could be made for New Zealand which has almost eliminated the virus.

‘I can’t see international travel occurring anytime soon,’ he said.

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This graph shows how active cases of coronavirus are dwindling while the number of recovered patients are growing

What conditions have been met before relaxation of restrictions?

• Sophisticated surveillance of disease incidence and spread – No, plans to test people for immunity need further consideration
• Public adherence to social distancing – Yes
• Finalised plan to monitor spread – No, more funding needed
• Modelling showing how fast the virus spreads – Yes
• Capacity to increase testing – Yes
• Enough health workers – Yes
• Contact tracing capacity – Yes
• Technology for contact tracing – No, not enough have downloaded the app
• Health system not overwhelmed – Yes
• Enough hospital beds and ventilators – Yes
• Enough surge capacity in hospitals – Yes
• Enough masks – Yes
• Enough gowns and gloves – No, this needs to be confirmed
• Enough drugs and ‘consumables’ in the health system – Yes
• Ongoing workforce training – Yes

‘The risks there are obvious. The only exception to that, as I have flagged, is potentially with New Zealand, and we have had some good discussions about that.’

Mr Morrison listed some restrictions which could be relaxed next. He said cafes and pubs as well as places of worship could re-open and sport could restart – but going to stadiums is a long way off.  He told Australians to brace for an increase in coronavirus cases as restrictions are lifted.

The Prime Minister said he was willing to see the infection rate increase in order to boost the economy and allow normal life to resume. He said a country’s success in dealing with the virus should not just be measured in terms of the number of cases and deaths. Success also means ‘having protections in place to enable Australians to go back to as normal a life and economy as possible,’ he said.

AUSTRALIA’S COVIDSAFE APP – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The COVID-19 contact tracing app is called COVIDSafe.

It only works on smartphones and can be downloaded from the Apple or Google app stores.

The use of the app is voluntary.

PURPOSE

• To identify people who may have come into contact with someone who has COVID-19 so that they can be advised to take measures to help stop the spread of the disease or get tested.

REGISTRATION

Registration will require users to input their:

• mobile phone number – so they can be contacted if needed for contact tracing.
• name – so the relevant health officials can confirm they are speaking to the right person, although the Health Minister says you can use a fake name if you want.
• age range – so health officials can prioritise cases for contact tracing.
• postcode – to make sure health officials from the right state and territory are dealing with your case.

COVIDSAFE IN USE

The app will record the following contact data:

• the encrypted user ID.
• date and time of the contact.
• the Bluetooth signal strength of other COVIDSafe users you come into contact with. This will be logged every two hours in the National COVIDSafe data store.
• No location data will be collected at any time.
• Contact data stored on a device will be deleted after 21 days.
• All data stored will be deleted once the pandemic has concluded.

PRIVACY

• Personal information collected via COVIDSafe will handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and the Biosecurity Determination 2020.
• There will be criminal penalties and anyone breaches someone’s privacy.

Source: Australian Government Department of Health

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