Covid-19: Tracer App Usage Lowest in Months Amid New Community Cases

Use of the government’s Covid-19 tracking app has fallen to the lowest level since before the August outbreak in Auckland, which experts say could hamper efforts to break the chain of transmission in the event of a broader outbreak.

In September, when all of New Zealand was at alert level 2, there were up to 2.5 million QR code scans per day, gradually decreasing as we moved to level 1.

On Thursday, days after the confirmation of new community cases in Auckland, the number of daily scans dropped to 415,080, the lowest since before August 11, when the country’s 102-day streak of no community transmission was snapped.

The government’s Covid-19 response group said the app’s current low usage could prevent contact trackers from getting an “advantage” on how to control an outbreak.

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Health CEO Ashley Bloomfield echoed that call Thursday, saying New Zealanders should use the app wherever we go, no matter the alert level.

Between August 18 and September 27, there were no days with fewer than 1 million scans and 12 consecutive days (September 1 to 12) with more than 2 million scans per day.

When Auckland joined the rest of the country at alert level 1 on October 7, there were close to one million daily scans (926,762).

In one week, it dropped to about 650,000.

In the past five days since the confirmation of a new community case on Sunday, an average of 510,387 daily scans had been recorded, dropping to 415,080 on Thursday.

Microbiologist Dr. Siouxsie Wiles said Stuff the app was an “absolutely crucial” part of the response to Covid-19.

In addition to tracking a person’s whereabouts, it aids in contact tracing efforts and allows public health officials to know if a person may have been exposed to Covid-19, he said.

Wiles said that despite the “incredible defenses” at the border, no system was “100% watertight.”

“It is up to all of us, if the cases escape, to control the big outbreaks,” he said.

There were several systems to protect against Covid-19: border controls, managed isolation and contact tracing, and isolation of infectious people and their contacts.

But there were also things that people could do to strengthen these protections, such as physical distancing, hand washing, wearing masks, and using tracking apps, he said.

Wiles said Kiwis “shouldn’t think every time we get to level 1 that we can stop doing all these things to protect ourselves.”

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health said the latest community cases were a “strong reminder of the continuing risk of a new Covid-19 outbreak” and the need to “keep our efforts” below alert level 1.

Timeline of application use

• August 11 (when New Zealand learned of new community cases): 33,282 daily examinations
• Aug 12 (Auckland moved to level 3, rest of New Zealand moved to level 2) – 147,688
• Aug 12-30 (Auckland at Tier 3, New Zealand at Tier 2): 1.28 million scans per day, on average
• Aug 30 (when Auckland moved to level 2): ​​1,590,585 scans
• August 30 to September 20 (all of New Zealand at level 2): ​​1.96 million scans per day, on average
• September 5 – App usage peaked at 2,509,166 scans
• September 21 (New Zealand, except Auckland, moved to level 1): 1,441,621 scans
• Oct 7 (Auckland goes to Alert Level 1): 926,762 scans
• Oct 7-22 (all of New Zealand at Alert Level 1, to date): 663,515 scans per day, on average
• October 22: 415,080 daily examinations.