EXPLAINED: Major Check In Tas app changes this week and through July
The way we use the state’s coronavirus tracing app is about to change and local businesses are already making moves to fall in line with new Check In Tas requirements. SEE THE FULL LIST OF CHANGES >>
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The way we use the state’s coronavirus tracing app is about to change and local businesses are already making moves to fall in line with new Check In Tas requirements.
Customer service worker James Pulford has noticed a new sense of ease at Hill Street Grocer at Sandy Bay since the store introduced their Check In Tas QR code on Monday.
“It makes me feel comfortable working here with all that’s going on,” he said.
“On the mainland it’s starting to get a little bit uncertain. Customers have been coming in and been unsure about the whole thing so it’s good to have the app now.”
Mr Pulford said shoppers last week had been searching the store for the QR code.
“Heaps of people are happy to use it and they’re looking out for it,” Mr Pulford said.
Starting this week, new locations including grocers have until July 31 to implement the Check In Tas app on site to comply with new state government and Public Health Covid-19 guidelines.
It comes as Public Health downgraded several hot spots in Western Australia and the Northern Territory from high-risk to low-risk on Monday afternoon.
Public Health also announced high-risk declarations would remain for at least another two days in 13 Queensland local government areas including Brisbane, Ipswich, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Gold Coast and Townsville.
Food courts, shops, pharmacies, supermarkets, markets, fairs, and libraries are some of the new premises required to use the app.
Mobile food vans and stalls will need to use the phone app, unless the van is within a retail precinct or market, along with shopping centres, schools and accommodation locations.
Under previous rules, people over 16 were only required to sign in if they stayed at a premises for more than 15 minutes, but a Public Health spokesman has confirmed from Wednesday July 7 people were required to check in no matter how long they were on site.
MeMi cafe supervisor Samantha Free said even before this change took place, staff had given customers the option to sign in even if they were only nipping in and out for a quick takeaway.
“There’s been a little bit of confusion around that,” she said.
“We used to have a lot of people ask us ‘do I have to sign in if I’m taking away?’, and we would always encourage it.
“Customers are being very proactive about it and they usually have it done by the time they get to the front counter.
“As long as the staff understand what needs to be done and you can communicate that effectively with people it’s pretty straight forward.”
Ms Free said some customers faced frustrations installing and operating the app, but were otherwise happy to follow the rules.
No major changes to mask wearing guidelines have been enforced since the special Festival of Voices provisions which required audiences to mask up at most of the festival’s events.
Public Health staff had explained the festival had special circumstances given the event coincided with worsening national Covid-19 cases and included interstate participation.
ARE YOU UP TO DATE ON TASSIE’S RULE CHANGES?
The Mercury asked shoppers at Hill Street Grocer Sandy Bay how they felt about changes to Tasmania’s Check In Tas app rules.
Lenny Bartulin
“I don’t know a lot of the new changes but I just went and had my shot and I’m up to date with the app,” Mr Bartulin said.
“Generally we use the app all the time for pretty much anything, even takeaways.
“At the moment it’s all getting pretty messy out there in terms of the information, it keeps changing, but my wife and I were keen to get vaccinated and contribute to the community awareness.”
Mr Bartulin said not enforcing the app at all locations or only using it for visits above 15 minutes had followed the same logic as the philosophy “we’re not going into lockdown until Monday”.
“It should be all or nothing, because the virus won’t wait for us,” he said.
Luka Bartulin, 14
Luka was not up to speed on all of the latest changes, but was happy to see Hill Street jump on board at the earliest opportunity.
“I think it’s helpful for contact tracing,” he said.
Julia Roshalina
It was Ms Roshalina’s understanding the Check In Tas app has become “mandatory for every Tasmanian”.
She believed crowded places like shopping centres needed to use the app.
“I’m aware the last few months people don’t care as much, but Tasmanians need to be more careful and do what they should for the community,” she said.
Zeinab Badr
Ms Badr saw the app as a “smart solution” and has lived by the rule that you should always check in, even if you’re there for five minutes.
She had not been aware of previous rules surrounding the required time spent at a premises to sign into Check In Tas.
“It’s easy and it’s good for tracking,” she said.
“The Check In app should be used in crowded places like cafes or at medical check-ups because there is a group of people who can’t keep their distance.”
Ms Badr said Hill Street Grocer was an example of a place that needed the app.
“We should all take care,” she said.
“If the pandemic reached us it would be a problem because we don’t have lots of hospitals.”
Joan White
“I did notice the new Check In (at Hill Street today),” she said.
“I took a step back and I did it.”
Ms White said the new rules were appropriate.
“We’ve been so free of it so long I think it’s easy to get complacent with it,” she said.
“I sort of know the rules, but again I think we need more and more reminders because it’s very easy to just go back to our older habits.
“I’ve had friends who weren’t going to get vaccinated but now they have, so I think a bit of just discussion among ourselves helps.”
FULL LIST: CHECK UP ON YOUR CHECK IN TAS APP CHANGES
The gradual phasing in of mandatory Check In Tas app use from now until July 31 means the following locations will need to install on site QR codes:
- Mobile food vans and stalls (except where the van or stall is located within a retail location or market)
- Shops, pharmacies, supermarkets and other retail premises
- Food courts
- Shopping centres
- Markets, fairs and similar premises
- Schools that provide kindergarten, primary education or secondary education (except for home education)
- Libraries
- Accommodation locations, including hotels, motels, serviced apartments, hostels, boarding houses, caravan parks campsites and camping areas, bed and breakfasts and short stay accommodation (except where the premises is the person’s residential premises)
- Child care centres (other than a child care service that is provided at a residential premises for children that live there)
- Residential aged care facilities
- Certain medical facilities
- Veterinary and animal care locations
- Certain mobile service providers who provide services at residential premises such as beauty therapist, hairdressers and personal trainers
This is in addition to the existing list of premises required to use Check In Tas, which includes:
- Food retail businesses like restaurants, cafes
- Places used for worship, religious gatherings, weddings, funerals
- Pubs, clubs, hotels, premises selling alcohol for drinking on site
- Cinemas, entertainment venues, casinos, gaming and gambling venues, dance venues, nightclubs, strip clubs, brothels
- Tourist venues, sites, indoor or activities, services with paid entry or participation
- Galleries, museums, national institutions, historic sites
- Concert venues, theatres, arenas, auditoriums, stadiums
- Auction houses, real estate auctions, open homes, display homes
- Amusement parks, arcades, indoor and outdoor play centres (except skate parks and playgrounds)
- Hairdressing, hair salons, spas, massage parlours, beauty treatment premises; body modification, tattooing, piercing, waxing and nail services
- Swimming pools, gyms, health clubs, fitness centres, wellness centres, yoga classes, barre venues (indoor and outdoor)
- Zoos, wildlife centres, animal parks, petting zoos, aquariums, marine parks
- Sport and fitness venues (including personal training and prearranged activities), sauna and bathhouses (indoor and outdoor)
- Gatherings approved under Covid-19 Safe Events Framework
Each time a person enters a relevant site they must use Check In Tas no matter how long they stay, unless they are:
- Responding to an emergency
- School students when they are at school or on a school excursion
- Parents of children at childcare and students at kindergarten or primary school when dropping off or collecting a child or student from school
For more information visit coronavirus.tas.gov.au/check-in-tas/information-for-organisations-and-businesses
For broader coronavirus queries call the Public Health Hotline 1800 671 738 or visit coronavirus.tas.gov.au
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