The Ministry of Health (MoH) has again emphasized the importance of the COVID Tracer app in combating any potential community transmission of coronavirus. 

The Central App published an opinion piece on the topic and found some readers didn’t know how to use the app or enable it on their phones. 

A ministry spokesperson says the COVID Tracer app is an easy way for people to record their movements, but acknowledged not everyone has access to this technology.

“We’d like to acknowledge those who are routinely scanning and using the NZ COVID Tracer app.

“Your efforts are helping New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 and making contact tracing an easier task — as we’ve learnt over the past few days in the northern part of the country.  

“It’s incredibly important that people keep a record of where they’ve been. It can help support contact tracers in tracing potential close and casual contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.”

The spokesperson said anyone unable to use the app can ask the help of someone who may be able to show them, or simply keep a pen and paper diary of where they go, who they meet, and when. 

If you are afraid of your movement and data being used online, the ministry simply asks you keep a diary of some type. 

People with older phones can still use the NZ COVID Tracer app to scan the QR codes and add manual entries to their digital diary, and will still receive location alerts if they are enabled.

“What’s important is that people keep a diary – whether through technology or not — so that if they were interviewed by a contact tracing team today they could accurately provide locations, dates and times of where they’ve been.

“Do you remember where you were at 3pm on Sunday? What about the Sunday before? And who were you with?

“We know that for some people it can be difficult to remember these things, particularly from previous weeks and with people you don’t know well.”

The COVID Tracer app is a vital tool in keeping a record of where you go and when, and your privacy is protected by the Ministry of Health and not passed on. 

For our older populations this may require help from whānau, friends, and carers.

“To help with this, the United Against COVID-19 website has a downloadable booklet to help people diarise their movements if they don’t have access to the COVID Tracer app. The webpage has instructions on how to use the booklet.

“It’s important to remember that any kind of diary or notepad is sufficient — just ensure you’re noting down the right details like location, date, time and who you were with if you know.”

People can also track their movements through other personal sources — such as keeping a calendar, taking photos, using bank statements, public transport cards etc.

“We recommend people continue to scan QR codes using the NZ COVID Tracer app and turn on Bluetooth tracing within the app. Doing both of these things is important for our response.

“Since the Apple/Google Exposure Notification Framework (ENF) Bluetooth functionality was added and launched in December 2020, there’s been a steady uptake in New Zealanders that have turned on Bluetooth tracing and the numbers continue to increase. 

“There has been a good response so far and we continue to encourage more people to use it. Note: ENF requires that users must opt in i.e. they must turn on Bluetooth tracing themselves.

“When we released Bluetooth tracing in the app the requirements set by Apple and Google were:           

• Android phones need to be running Android 6 or above, and have Google Play Services enabled, and have Bluetooth Low Energy capability.
• iPhones need to be running iOS 13.5 or above.

“We were advised that phones with older operating systems cannot provide Bluetooth tracing because they do not have the ENF built in.

“Recently, Apple released support for the Exposure Notifications feature that enables Bluetooth tracing in i0S 12.5 which will run on iPhone 6. 

“We are looking at what we need to do to update the NZ COVID Tracer app to support Bluetooth tracing on these older iPhones, but we don’t currently have a timeframe for this.”

For more information or to download the app, click here.

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