The Bestseller Is The COVIDSafe Application That Is Downloaded By Australian Citizens

An Australian downloaded COVIDsafe app (Photo: Alexander Britton / PA)

JAKARTA - Following in the footsteps of other countries, the Australian government launched a coronavirus or COVID-19 tracking application. This application is expected to be able to assist medical and government officials in tracking people who have made contact with sufferers of COVID-19.

Launching The Guardian, this application called COVIDSafe records the activities of its users after undergoing medical tests. If someone has contracted the virus, allow health authorities to track who has been within 1.5 meters of the patient for 15 minutes or more.

"Our target is patients and people around them. So that it can help medical personnel to minimize the possibility of other people being exposed," said Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt.

According to Hunt, at least 1.13 million Australians, or 4.5 percent of the population, have downloaded the COVIDSafe application, which was launched on Sunday, April 26 yesterday. The use of this application began as Australian states relaxed restrictions on citizen mobility or lockdowns.

The application, which is based on the TraceTogether software from Singapore, uses a Bluetooth signal to indicate if someone is in a certain zone. Likewise, if the user is too close to a person diagnosed with COVID-19.

The App we are working on to help our health workers trace people who have been in contact with coronavirus will not be mandatory.

- Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 18, 2020

Privacy Policy

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said contact testing and tracing was a prerequisite for Australia to more broadly loosen social distancing restrictions. With states in Queensland and Western Australia starting to announce easing of their quarantine zones.

On the other hand, the government needs to address privacy concerns in order to convince the public to download the application. At least 40 percent of the country's 26 million population must do so for this effort to be successful.

"The more people who download this important public health application, the safer they and their families are, the safer their community will be and the sooner we can safely lift restrictions," Morrison said, as quoted by his Twitter account.

The authorities have emphasized that the data from the COVIDSafe will only be used by health authorities and will not be shared with other agencies including the police. It is also regulated in the Biosecurity Act, which protects the privacy and access to information of Australian citizens.

So far, there have been 6,711 positive COVID-19 patients in Australia, with 83 of them dying. "The use of this application is fully subject to applicable law and no other authority will utilize patient data other than contact tracing purposes," said Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy.

Similar applications were also developed in Indonesia, through PeduliL Protect. The Indonesian government can track the spread of the COVID-19 infection. This application allows the Indonesian government to monitor and prevent people from gathering in certain zones or being close to COVID-19 patients.