COVIDSafe app identifies under 800 positive cases

Once hailed as Australia’s ‘ticket’ to life free of restrictions, this federal government app has identified fewer than 800 Covid cases.

The federal government’s COVIDSafe app was once hailed as Australia’s “ticket” to life free of restrictions, but new data has revealed fewer than 800 people who tested positive for the virus had the app.

According to a Department of Health report, 779 people who tested positive for Covid-19 had the app and consented for their data to be shared for contract tracing.

The mobile phone app was developed in the early stages of the pandemic as a tool to assist contact tracers and has attracted criticism for its cost and effectiveness.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the time declared COVIDSafe would be Australia’s “ticket” to easing restrictions.

“If you want to go outside when the sun is shining, you have got to put sunscreen on. This is the same thing,” he said.

The long overdue government report found the app had identified just 2827 potential unique close contacts and “some that would not have been otherwise identified”.

Scott Morrison declared COVIDSafe would be Australia’s ‘ticket’ to easing restrictions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

But it conceded it was rare for contract tracers to use the app.

“Well established tracing processes has limited the need of public health officials to rely on COVIDSafe,” the report said.

“The relatively low number of cases in Australia and effectiveness of our contact tracing processes has created an environment in which it has rarely been necessary for public health officials to use the app, except to confirm cases identified through manual processes.”

COVIDSafe records contact between two users who are within 1.5 metres of each other for at least 15 minutes – parameters that have faced criticism due to the emergence of the more infectious Delta variant.

The federal government said it was open to shortening that timefame based on the medial advice.

“In light of the emergence of more highly transmittable variants of Covid-19, if the medical experts believe that a shorter timeframe for a close contact should be considered, then the government will look at that in consultation with the states and territories,” the report said.

Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler hit out at the government’s use of taxpayer funds. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Since April 2020, 7.6 million Australians have downloaded the app; however, the report did not state how many of those registrations remain active.

Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler used the report to hit out at the government’s management of taxpayer funds.

“The COVIDsafe app has been a colossal failure and a waste of taxpayers’ money,” he told NCA NewsWire.

“The app has cost taxpayers over $8mn. It has failed to identify any new contacts in most of the country …

No wonder Scott Morrison wanted to keep his waste of taxpayers’ money secret.”

Originally published as COVIDSafe app identifies under 800 positive cases