Australian government’s Covid-19 tracing app surpasses 1mn downloads in 5 hrs

Canberra, April 27

More than 1 million Australians have downloaded the government’s coronavirus tracing app within hours of its launch, Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Monday.

The COVIDSafe app was released at 6pm on Sunday night, and by 10:30pm it had been downloaded 1 million times, rising to 1.13 million by 6am on Monday, Xinhua news agency quoted Hunt as saying.

He told Sky News Australia that the number of downloads in the first five hours after launch exceeded what the government expected in the first five days. “Australians have responded magnificently,” he said. “We had in our quiet hopes thought that we might get to a million in five days. We were lucky enough to get there in five hours.”

The app uses Bluetooth to check if any other devices with the app installed are within 1.5 metres of the user. If a user tests positive for Covid-19 health authorities can then use the app to find other users that they have been in close contact with and warn them that they may have been exposed to the virus.

“It is an additional tool. It is over and above what was already being done, and what that means is that we are able to help find those cases that might be in the community and undiagnosed,” Hunt said.

“We know we have had 500 (cases) so far where we couldn’t find the original source. This gives our disease experts the chance to help find and discover those cases, and that could save the life of an older Australian, it could protect a nurse or a doctor, and it could protect ourselves and our families.”

The government has previously stated that in order for it to be effective, 40 per cent of the Australian population, or 10 million people, must download the app.

With many Australians raising concerns about the security of the app, Hunt on Monday committed to releasing its source code for examination within weeks. Australia has reported 6,714 coronavirus cases, with 83 deaths.

PM’s popularity soars

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s approval rating soared on his pandemic response. The surge in downloads come as a Newspoll conducted for The Australian newspaper showed Morrison enjoyed the best approval rating for a leader since end-2008.

Morrison’s approval rating has skyrocketed 27 points since the first week of March to 68%, the poll showed.

The result was boosted as Morrison jettisoned much of his conservative government’s ideology to pledge spending worth more than 10% of GDP, including a A$130 billion subsidy to employers to keep staff they might otherwise have let go.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans estimates that without the subsidy unemployment would have soared to 17% by the end of June, but would now only reach 9%. — Agencies