Covid Qld: DIY contact tracing as check-in app fails to alert exposures
Fearful Queenslanders are doing their own contact tracing amid concerns the government-mandated check-in app is not notifying those exposed to Covid-19.
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Fearful Queenslanders are doing their own contact tracing as authorities wind back efforts to slow the virus amid concerns the government-mandated check-in app is not being used to automatically notify people exposed to Covid-19.
The purpose of the state-government-developed Queensland Check-In app appears to be under a cloud, with Queensland Health yesterday unable to say how many people have been notified of being at an exposure site through using the app.
A Queensland Health spokesperson said the app “helps us to easily identify and notify anyone who may have been in contact with Covid-positive cases, making contact tracing easier” – particularly in relation to superspreader events.
In other states, such as NSW, users of similar apps are alerted if they have been to a venue at the same time as a positive case and notified of what to do next, which is in many cases to monitor symptoms.
The State Government has repeatedly urged Queenslanders to assist contact tracers by using its check-in app, which has now been downloaded more than 5.2m times and averages about 33m check-ins a week.
Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said contact tracing was now “gradually being pulled back” due to a skyrocketing number of Covid-19 cases.
Authorities are now focusing on publishing “high-risk’’ exposure sites such as prisons, aged-care facilities and hospitals.
“In broad terms, we are pulling back to isolating those who are sick, and their immediate household contacts, that is the main group that we are contacting,’’ Dr Gerrard said.
“We are doing we are doing less direct contact tracing in businesses like restaurants and cafes.
“We are moving forward with the pandemic; we cannot afford to quarantine the entire population of Queensland, we know that, and this pandemic is progressing it has always been expected to progress.”
The lack of detail has frustrated Queenslanders eager to know whether they have been to a venue attended by a Covid-19-positive person.
Danica Clayton, of Narangba north of Brisbane, started the Facebook page South East Queensland Covid Exposure Sites after the Government eased contact tracing.
“Now that they aren’t recording all the contact sites I thought we all had to look out for each other,’’ she said.
“I hope this will inspire people to keep doing the right thing and checking in.
“I’m also encouraging people to visit small businesses that have had to close, when they are allowed to reopen.”
In under a week more than 14,000 people have joined, with many sharing their movements while infected with the virus and others calling for the State Government to use its check-in app to notify people of exposure.
Contact sites uploaded on the page now stretch from Ipswich to the Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg, Moreton Bay, Toowong and sites in Logan.
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