The Australian government has released its report on the COVIDSafe, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a "digital sunscreen" and the key to returning to normality.
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According to the report, over 7.6 million Australians have registered with COVIDSafe.
For the period 26 April 2020 to 15 May 2021, 779 COVIDSafe users, who tested positive for COVID-19, gave their consent to upload their data to the National COVIDSafe Data Store (NCDS).
This resulted in over 1.65 million digital handshakes being uploaded to NCDS and 2,827 potential contacts being identified from 37,668 encounters.
However, it should be noted that a meeting is defined as an interaction that includes handshakes that meet the agreed parameters for access by contact tracers, at a distance of 1.5 meters for 15 minutes or more.
Over 1.45 million digital handshakes were uploaded to NCDS in the first six months and only 202,110 in the second.
New South Wales and Victoria were the only states to use the information from the app.
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New South Wales accessed COVIDSafe data to identify 81 close contacts, which the report said included 17 contacts not identified by manual contact tracing.
Two people in this group presented for testing and were subsequently confirmed to have COVID-19.
“NSW said that in its experience the app is a useful additional tool for contact tracing in some cases,” the report states.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, the state has incorporated the use of apps into its contact tracing processes. It was reported that over 1,800 cases reported using the app.
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Queensland and South Australia had very low numbers of community transmission and had not identified additional contacts, while other states and territories did not need to use the app due to the low number of cases.
The total cost to build and operate the app as of May 2021 was AU$7,753,863.38. By the end of January, this amount was AU$6,745,322.31. As of 28 July 2021, there were approximately 2,600 positive cases of COVID-19 in Australia, with a total of 33,473 cases. New South Wales remains under strict lockdown orders until at least 28 August 2021.
