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Nearly 400,000 users of the Health Ministry’s Covid-19 app have activated Bluetooth tracking, the ministry says.
Earlier this month, the ministry enhanced its NZ Covid Tracer app using technology created by Apple and Google to digitally record a user’s “anonymous handshake” with people they come in contact with.
People needed to approve the use of the phone’s Bluetooth feature before it could start tracking contacts, and around 390,000 had done so on Monday.
“The ministry is encouraged by this level of acceptance, but we still have a long way to go,” said a spokesman for the health ministry.
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ALDEN WILLIAMS / Stuff
Almost 400,000 users of the Covid-19 application of the Ministry of Health have activated Bluetooth tracking.
“We encourage people to download version 3.0.1 of the app and activate Bluetooth. This will allow people to receive an alert if they have been around another user of the application testing positive for Covid-19. “
The technology was adopted by Ireland in May and has since been adopted by 25 other countries.
Since Ireland launched it in July, around 30% of that country’s population has signed up as active users.
The minimum requirements for Bluetooth tracking were iOS 13.5 or higher for iPhone, or Android 6.0 or higher for other phones.
Bluetooth tracking did not replace the need to scan QR codes, the ministry said.
