Filimone Vuna’s heartwarming story is a good reminder that older people may not fully understand NZ Covid Tracer app technology, writes Vaimoana Tapaleao for the NZ Herald. Sola Vuna did not think anything of it when his father called his daughter Praize over to help fix his cellphone which had started to run out of … Read more
Having a hard time remembering to scan in on the NZ Covid Tracer app when you’re out and about? Get this song stuck in your head and you’ll never forget again. Learn the lyrics: Aotearoa, it’s time to get scanning! I mean if you think about it, it never really wasn’t time we just kind … Read more
Ignoring those QR codes when you drop into the supermarket? Can’t be bothered when you grab a coffee? The people serving you notice, and you’re freaking them out. So far, New Zealanders’ use of the Covid-19 Tracer app has been notably woeful. Food industry workers who’ve watched streams of customers walk straight past their workplace’s … Read more
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change. As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer app daily in January, … Read more
What reasons did people list for opposing the vaccine? How does New Zealand stack up against the US? And what do we think about compulsory face mask-wearing? UMR Research executive director Stephen Mills on the company’s latest findings. An online survey by UMR from late November found 74% of New Zealanders said they were willing … Read more
An update to the NZ Covid Tracer app today adds bluetooth functionality, allowing your phone to automatically track other app users you’re near to. New Zealand’s Covid tracer app is getting a significant new feature tomorrow with the incorporation of bluetooth tracking. The additional tool on the app doesn’t replace your daily practice of scanning … Read more
Focusing only on tech solutions to New Zealand’s contact tracing challenges ignores the needs of the fifth of the population who are digitally excluded, write Anna and Kelly Pendergrast. This month’s outbreak of Covid-19 after more than 100 days without any recorded community spread has suddenly focused attention on the need for effective contact tracing. … Read more
The Bluetooth-enabled tracking device is being sold as a more effective alternative to the Covid Tracer app, but the brutal truth is that neither are the miracle solution we want, writes Richard Easther. Covid-19 is a tightly rolled ball of nucleic acid and protein, astride the fuzzy line separating the living world from fancy chemistry. … Read more