[LINK] COVIDSafe app yet to trace useful number of unique cases despite second wave

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

[The app is being downloaded (including updates) significantly fewer
than 10,000/day

COVIDSafe app yet to trace useful number of unique cases despite second
wavehttps://www.smh.com.au/national/covidsafe-app-yet-to-trace-useful-number-of-unique-cases-despite-second-wave-20200725-p55fd7.html
By Nigel Gladstone <https://www.smh.com.au/by/nigel-gladstone-h0ffk2>
July 26, 2020

Experts say a technology U-turn is needed to help contact tracers in NSW
and Victoria because there is "no chance" the COVIDSafe app is going to
work as intended with its current settings.

Since April the multimillion-dollar COVIDSafe app has found just six
connections in NSW not already identified by contract tracers, while in
Victoria, where contact tracers are overwhelmed, it is yet to detect a
contact that hadn't already been identified.

Contact tracing apps work by exchanging Bluetooth handshakes with
smartphones around them, recording times that users come into contact
with potential coronavirus carriers. But the COVIDSafe app is having
unintended effects on battery power, other apps, and may not connect
with iPhones if the screen is locked.

The COVIDSafe app cost more than $2.5 million to develop but has not
identified many cases not found by human contract tracers/Credit:Alex
Ellinghausen/

Marc Edwards, founder of app developer Bjango, said there was "no
chance" the COVIDSafe app was going to work as intended because it's
technically "impossible" to get the app to run continuously while the
phone is locked on Apple's software system - iOS.

"As soon as the developer community heard about this they said 'yeah
that's not technically possible so it's not going to work'," Mr Edwards
said.

"Apple and Google made their own frameworks that handle contact tracing
and because they are the operating system vendors there is a bunch of
stuff they can do that a third party developer cannot do."

About $60 million has been spent on advertising the COVIDSafe strategy,
including physical distancing and handwashing guidance. The government
would not confirm how much of that has been spent advertising the app.

There have been eight updates, since the first version launched on April
26 including the latest one on Tuesday.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said last week about 400
Victorians who tested positive in recent weeks had downloaded the app.

Data from the app has been accessed 24 times by NSW Health with six
people identified that otherwise wouldn't have been found via manual
contact tracing, a spokeswoman said. No contacts were found by the app
that contact tracers had not already identified in Victoria, despite the
huge workload amid that state's second wave.

Meanwhile, an app using a different framework rolled out in Ireland sent
91 users a "close contact exposure alert" telling them to get tested in
its first two weeks. Dublin, Ireland's capital, has reported 156 new
cases over the past two weeks.

Ireland and the UK backtracked from their own app solutions and switched
over to the Apple and Google option with some success according to a BBC
report, an app developer, who asked not to be named due to government
contracts, said.

Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick said when the app was released
health officials and ministers promoted it as part of a solution when
they knew it didn't work because the Digital Transformation Agency told
a committee he was on at the time it was not working.

"If the COVIDSafe app was subject to Australian consumer law the
government could be dragged into court for misleading and deceptive
conduct," Mr Patrick said.

Labor's health spokesman, Chris Bowen, called the app a flop and said
despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison insisting it was "our ticket to
freedom", it was yet to perform as advertised.

"Despite downloads reaching the government's (amended) target, this week
we saw the Prime Minister saying in areas of outbreak people haven't
used the app, " Mr Bowen said.

Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said the app was "working
exactly as intended" with health officials using it more than 300 times
to assist manual tracing.

"I think there are some real sovereignty issues with allowing Google and
Apple to dictate terms and how to do COVID tracing," Mr Robert said.

The Government is open to improving technology on the basis that it
maintains a key role for health officials but the current structure of
the Google-Apple API does not do that, a spokesman for Mr Robert said.

"We will continue to work with Google and Apple, particularly to see if
they can remove their barriers in allowing a sovereign tracing app -
that has health professionals at its core - access to improved Bluetooth
functionality," the spokesman said.

More than 6.7 million Australians have registered for the COVIDSafe app.

*clarification*

This article was updated at 9.35 am on 26/7/2020 with comments from
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert explaining the government's
concerns about sovereignty issues with the Apple/Google framework
suggested by experts to improve its COVIDSafe app. And the advertising
budget for the app was not $60 million as has been reported elsewhere
that money was spent on advertising the entire COVIDSafe strategy,
including washing hands, and physical distancing. The government would
not confirm how much was spent advertising the app itself.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au