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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Barr says it’s okay to veto virus app and use a diary

Chief Minister Andrew Barr

A TRACKING app to help health officials undertake coronavirus contact tracing is being worked on at a national level, but ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says it’s okay for Canberrans to keep a diary instead. 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has asked people to keep a diary of their movements to help with contact tracing, and Mr Barr says that’s an option here, too.

“If you don’t have a mobile phone or you’re not interested in downloading an app, but you do want to keep a written record of all the people you’ve come in contact with in case either you or one of those people test positive for COVID-19, [keeping a diary] is also a reasonable way you could assist those who are undertaking contact tracing,” he says. 

But, Mr Barr says the app has come a long way, and further work will be done on it before it is released.

“I know this has been the subject of considerable community debate here in Canberra and around the nation,” he says.

“I want to stress to people that this continues to be a work in progress and that the many and varied concerns that were raised at the start of the process have been heard. We are in a better position now having heard those concerns to have in place, in the coming weeks, an app that I think more people will be comfortable with.”

Some of the initial concerns, according to Mr Barr, were around privacy, but he says a lot of these concerns have been heard.

“They’ve been responded to… [and people should have] much greater confidence that the data that would be collected through an app would only be available for those state and territory health department officials who are undertaking contact tracing,” he says. 

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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