Covid NSW: Push to ditch ‘just for show’ QR codes in pubs, restaurants

Experts say keeping rules and restrictions that don’t do anything to fight Covid means the public won’t trust health authorities the next time there is a crisis.

Premier Perrottet, let your people go … to the pub, without having to go through the whole theatre of checking in.

That is the message from health experts who say that keeping mandatory QR check-in requirements for pubs, clubs, and bars after February 28 would be not only pointless in fighting Covid, but could also erode trust in public health authorities in a future emergency.

The Daily Telegraph understands there is a push within government to scrap QR codes for pubs at the end of the month when a host of other rules are set to expire.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

These rules include indoor mask mandates, density limits, and the singing and dancing ban.

Requirements to check in at venues like supermarkets, offices, and retail shops are also set to expire from February 28.

However, these ministers also warned that any push to end hospitality check-ins would need to be backed by chief health officer Kerry Chant.

Multiple ministers think that those venues - once considered “high risk” - should be saved from mandatory QR codes when restrictions ease.

The calls come as leading experts called into question the value of QR code check ins and masks, warning that public health authorities were rapidly losing trust by keeping rules in place that do little or nothing to prevent the spread of the omicron variant.

Professor Peter Collignon questioned why QR code check-in requirements can’t be eased before February 28, considering NSW Health is no longer contact tracing positive cases.

“The only point of doing QR coding is if you’re going to do something with it,” he said.

“Unless people understand what you’re going to do with it, you won’t get people complying.”

It’s understood there is a push within government to scrap QR codes for pubs at the end of the month. Picture / Monique Harmer

Dr Nick Coatsworth, former Commonwealth Deputy Chief Medical Officer, agreed.

“We have to be adept at removing restrictions when it is safe to do so,” he said.

“Why? Because if we need to bring them back in the unlikely event of a more lethal variant than we have to keep the trust of the community.”

“Many Australians see now that masks are not having the impact on omicron that they may have had with less transmissible variants.”

Doctor Nick Coatsworth. Picture: David Gray/Getty Images

Dr Coatsworth said that if masking was to continue for another fortnight to “bring the less certain members of our community along, that was okay”, but stressed that he “would like to see them go in schools and indoor setting as soon as possible.”

Dr Coatsworth’s comments came reports from around the globe found that mask mandates were falling out of favour.

Less than a thousand people were fined for breaching Covid public health orders in January and not a single person has yet been punished for failing to register a positive rapid antigen test result.

Only 853 fines were issued in January, suggesting restrictions reimposed on December 24 are hardly being policed. More than 25,600 fines were issued in August last year.

In the United States, a number of states that had previously endured harsh pandemic restrictions are dropping mask requirements, including California where the indoor mask rule ends on Wednesday.

A number of analyses have found that with the more transmissible but less deadly omicron variant, rules like compulsory indoor masks and check-ins have become unwieldy and ineffective.

At Double Bay’s The Sheaf Hotel, patron Peter Roberts believes the QR codes are a “waste of time” and he felt sorry for bar staff who had to enforce the rules.

“If the epidemiologists says it’s a waste of time, then it’s a waste of time. They’re the people I listen to,” he said.

“No one signs in anymore. It’s pointless. Everyday there’s a case pinging on your phone wherever you go.”

Dipesh Bhattarai, Martin McCarthy and Manoj Bogati enjoy a beer at The Golden Sheaf, Double Bay. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Martin McCarthy said QR codes kept the most vulnerable safe but scrapping them for shops while keeping at pubs just created confusion.

“I think keep it. They scrapped it once and then they had to bring it back in again. Either get rid of it or don’t,” Mr McCarthy said.

“It’s not a huge hassle, everyone has the app. It’s not costing anyone either.”