responsibletrader
THE QR CODE QUANDARY The Government has made it mandatory for all operating businesses to display the New Zealand COVID Tracer App QR Code posters. Companies who do not display the posters can face a penalty or fine, but while it might be mandatory for business owners to post the QR code, it is not compulsory for Kiwis to use it.
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restaurantandcafé.co.nz
THE AUGUST OUTBREAK of community transmission has shown the importance of contact tracing in limiting the spread of the virus and in the first 48 hours after the confirmed cases were announced over 300,000 more New Zealanders downloaded the government app. It is heartening to see so many people react to the news of community transmission by doing the responsible thing. However, we have only just surpassed 1,000,000 registered users, the number a tech expert revealed was needed to make the app successful. What is stopping so many Kiwis from using it? The Government has had months to prepare the app in the event of a second wave, early users of the technology complained that it lacked usability or they couldn’t download it. Ease of use should surely be a top priority. New Zealand has long been promised a gold standard contact tracing system to manage outbreaks of the coronavirus, whether or not this is what we’ve been given remains to be seen. Dr Ayesha Verrall, an infectious disease expert, wrote in her audit of the country’s contact tracing systems (earlier this year) that public health measures of testing, tracing and isolating COVID-19 cases are
potentially as effective as a vaccine. The audit found the system to be woefully inadequate and so the Government promised to commit resources to improve it. The New Zealand COVID Tracer app was initially released about a week after the country’s transition from Alert Level 3 to level 2, in May. By then, the market had already been flooded with private-sector tools, and the threat of COVID-19 seemed further away. At the end of June, the average user had scanned just two QR code posters in total. For the first time, this month, the ministry sent out an alert via the app, to let users know if they’d been scanned into locations at the same time as those who later tested positive. Experts, however, remain unconvinced about the app’s longterm potential to aid contact tracing efforts. Many are looking to CovidCard, a Bluetooth card being trialled in Rotorua. The cards are designed to automatically detect others within close proximity, meaning if someone is later diagnosed with the virus, potential contacts can be easily traced. “We’re used to carrying cards for identification purposes. The reason there’s such low uptake of the app
is partly that it’s not a very natural thing to do, and it’s hard to see what the actual benefit is,” noted AUT Professor, Dave Parry. The CovidCard would also be accessible to people who do not have a smartphone which is needed to access the Government app. There is no real motivation for people to scan the government app. Parry has suggested bars and restaurants check if people have scanned in when they go to pay, but this responsibility of contact tracing should not be placed on establishment owners who have already had to pivot their businesses. Hospitality is an industry of team players; we are a resilient and adaptable lot who will do our best to get the industry back to what it was pre-pandemic. Download and place the mandatory poster and encourage your customers to use it. Remind them that we are a team of five million and that if we all do our part, the sooner restrictions can be lifted, and the sooner we can get back to building the excellent foodservice sector of Aotearoa. Download your unique QR Code poster at www.qrform.tracing. covid19.govt.nz.
