COVIDSafe app traces zero SA cases
Labor has labelled the government’s contact tracing app an expensive dud after SA Health said it had not been using it.
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The Federal Government’s COVIDSafe app has not traced a single positive case in Adelaide’s latest outbreak.
As the fallout for the lockdown backflip continued, SA Health has confirmed the $4m app has not been used in the contact tracing process.
During the peak of the pandemic, the COVIDSafe app was promoted by political leaders including Prime Minister Scott Morrison as an essential tool to get the country out of restrictions.
But the app that has been downloaded by more than seven million Australians has been described as a dud by the Federal Opposition, which says the real cost of the app has been $20m.
A SA Health spokeswoman told the Sunday Mail: “The Communicable Disease Control Branch are able to access data from the COVIDSafe app to assist with contact tracing; however this so far hasn’t been activated in response to the Parafield cluster.”
South Australia’s chief public health officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, said the app was still useful.
“If you still got your COVIDSafe app on your phone, keep it turned on,” she said.
A spokesman for Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said the SA outbreak was a reminder that no matter where you ere in Australia, the risk of COVID-19 remained, particularly when the number of global cases continues to grow.
“Now is the time to check you have the COVIDSafe app downloaded and active on your phone so you can be contacted if needed.”
Vocal critic of the app, Federal Opposition government services spokesman Bill Shorten argued more than $20m had been spent on the app.
“The recent mess in South Australia just highlights how necessary a functioning tracing app is to our national COVID response,” Mr Shorten said.
“Unfortunately, despite spending $20m of taxpayers’ money, Stuart Robert’s app is a massive dud that has only made 17 unique COVID detections across the whole country.”
Meanwhile, a push for QR coding, which would also help with contact tracing and was expected to be launched this weekend, has been postponed
Premier Steven Marshall said QR codes should be introduced in the first week of December but stressed they did not replace contact tracing.
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