The CovidSafe app has been decommissioned, but after $21 million was spent on the application to identify only a handful of unique positive cases, there are lingering questions over its effectiveness.
The application former Prime Minister Scott Morrison once compared to the “sunscreen” for COVID-19 and a “ticket" to Australians getting their lifestyle back from the bleak days of COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns has been decommissioned.
Opposition spokesperson for health Senator Anne Ruston said the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 threat needed to be considered in evaluating the application's overall effectiveness as a public health response. The application was designed to record contact users had had with other users to show potential close contacts to health officials by linking this information to a database.But fewer than 800 users consented to their data going to the National COVIDSafe Data Store for contact tracing, according to government data.
Dr Haire said their research had shown the application had not proven effective enough for use by contact tracers. But Dr Haire said their research had shown Android phones had a tendency to register contact between users too far away for infection to occur, while iPhones often didn’t recognise interactions.
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