NT Health to launch COVID-19 check-in app to bolster contact tracing
TERRITORY cafes, restaurants and other businesses will have access to a new government-funded customer check-in system that it hopes will make coronavirus contact tracing easier.
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TERRITORY cafes, restaurants and other businesses will have access to a new government-funded customer check-in system that it hopes will make coronavirus contact tracing easier.
The app uses QR codes to sign people into venues, similar to what has been in place in other jurisdictions for months.
Known as “The Territory Check In”, the app will be available for iPhone and Android from November 30.
Indicative costs to the Northern Territory Government for the app are about $180,000, subject to finalisation with the ACT
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said businesses had asked for a government-alternative to QR code check-in systems that currently exist.
Its uptake is not compulsory and businesses who already have their own systems in place can continue using that.
However, all venues that have a registered COVID Safety Plan will be automatically registered for The Territory Check In app and will be sent their own QR code to be displayed from 30 November.
Territorians must download the app for the system to work.
“For security purposes the QR code functionality was built within an app. This means that the QR Codes on Territory Check In posters will only work through using the app. You must open the app to scan the QR Code,” the NT government fact sheet states.
Downloading the app also means Territorians will have to fill their details only once, and won’t have to go through the rigmarole of punching in information each time they check into a place.
Details will be stored by NT Health for 28 days.
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Information will only be accessed if required for contact tracing.
It’s hoped the app will make it quicker for contact tracers, should the need arise in the NT, to hone in on people who were potentially exposed to the virus by being able to immediately access check-in information.
Mr Gunner said data will be stored in a server in Australia.
“This is about providing an option for premises that don’t already have that capacity and making it as easy as possible for,” he said.
Mr Gunner said this was an “additional layer of protection” that comes after outgoing Australian Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel “put us through our paces” on contact tracing as part of a national review.
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Dr Finkel’s review called for jurisdictions to embrace digital check-in applications for businesses, rather than paper-based systems.
Draft guidelines developed jointly by the federal Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and all the state and territory privacy and information regulators, released this week, has advised that information be kept on Australian-located servers and is not used for marketing.
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