Coronavirus: There’s nothing to fear from contact-tracing app

CBA CEO Matt Comyn says using technology to automate contact tracing will help Australians get their lives back sooner. Picture: AAP

In the midst of a major pandemic that has more than a third of the world’s population living with physical restrictions, Australia has something to be proud of.

Relative to other nations, we are in a strong position today. We have avoided some of the ­devastating scenes overseas, thanks to the efforts of government, health professionals and communities across the country.

Last week, the Doherty Institute released modelling that shows Australia has further lowered transmission rates due to the ­actions the community has taken. It also shows the strength of our healthcare system, good testing procedures, protocols for quarantining positive cases and manual contact tracing to track potential new infections.

The economic impacts from the coronavirus have been significant. Our data at the Commonwealth Bank shows many sectors have been severely impacted, such as travel agents and fitness centres, which have seen their revenue fall almost to zero, recreation and tourism where we have seen falls of 80 per cent, and restaurants and discretionary retail where sales are down 40 per cent. We are fortunate that strong government measures have been put in place to cushion the economic blow, keep businesses intact and support the people who have been most impacted.

These measures are ­designed to bridge the economy through this period, and to help it recover strongly.

To complement these measures, the Commonwealth Bank is supporting more than $850m each month of additional cashflow for households and small businesses. This includes having processed deferrals on more than 78,000 home loans and 74,000 small-business loans. We have made more than 100,000 proactive calls to customers to offer assistance.

We expect the economy to contract substantially and, even with a strong recovery, some economic output and prosperity will be permanently lost. We should all be encouraged that the government has started working through a pragmatic and safe path for reopening parts of the economy.

Australians can look forward to a staged reopening, starting with key sectors such as education, retail and construction. Confidence will be critical and, understandably, it may take some time for all of us to feel safe in returning to our daily lives.

Importantly, the government is looking at technology to help restore confidence. Using technology to automate contact tracing is one area where substantial opportunity to further suppress the virus exists by more quickly notifying people if they may have been ­exposed.

Tracing today is a fairly manual process. The basic idea is when a case is confirmed, a person is asked to recall their movements over the past several days and identify ­anyone they may have come into contact with. Health officials then make phone calls to businesses or individuals, diligently working to contact people.

This relies on the infected person’s memory and ability to accurately identify those with whom they interacted. Crucially, it also takes a lot of time, and time matters.

A University of Oxford study last month showed that 70 per cent of people an individual has come into contact with will need to be traced to control breakouts.

Technology presents real opportunities here. Almost all of us carry mobile phones everywhere we go. It is not hard to imagine an app that can improve and automate contact tracing by helping alert us if anyone we have been in contact with has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Success requires broad adoption, as the system works only if a majority have installed the app so that anonymised information can be shared between devices.

We expect, and are seeing, a healthy debate regarding privacy. There are genuine concerns and the government is focused on ­addressing them to provide confidence to the community.

Even though manual contact tracing today involves an interview and handing over of contact details, it may feel different when new technology is used. Most of us have become comfortable using apps with more intrusive features such as location services, when we can see a clear benefit.

The clear benefit from automated contact tracing is getting more of our lives back sooner. The broad idea is to enable us to feel more comfortable to go shopping or to a restaurant, because we know that if we have been exposed to the virus, we are going to be notified quickly and can take the necessary steps to look after ourselves and prevent further transmission to protect the community.

All businesses are thinking about their staff and customers, and what additional steps they can take to keep them safe and feel ­better about resuming their daily lives.

For example, everyone using the app would feel more comfortable boarding a plane or going to a cinema if more people around them have taken the same precautions. This app would have one purpose — to suppress the virus — and once the virus has been sufficiently controlled we can all delete it from our phones.

We are still in the early days of this pandemic. So long as we all continue to work together, there is a real opportunity for Australia to continue to manage it well and emerge faster and in better physical and economic health than any other country.

Matt Comyn is CEO of the Commonwealth Bank.