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The Australian Government has just released a mobile app that alerts people if they come into contact with COVID-19 patients. This app called COVIDSafe has reached 1 million app downloads in just a few hours. It also became the number one Health & Fitness apps on Google Play Store and App Store.

As you know, social distancing is of great importance for us in order to prevent the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Governments also underline this every single day and keep developing new methods with the help of technology.

On April 26th, the Australian government released a COVID-19 tracking app called COVIDSafe on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This app uses the same software as the TraceTogether app published by the Singapore government. Both of these applications work with Bluetooth technology.

According to AppBrain, in Australia, COVIDSafe has become the number 1 app on Google Play Store in just a few hours.

Currently, it is also the #1 Health & Fitness app on the App Store.

So what does COVIDSafe do? If you contact a COVID-19 patient for more than 15 minutes, it instantly alerts you. Thus, it minimizes the possibility of Coronavirus spread by contact. And using the Digital Handshake feature, you can shake hands with people when they’re within 1.5m.

So, who will have access to users’ information?

The Health Minister has issued a Determination under the Biosecurity Act to protect people’s privacy and restrict access to information from the app. State and territory health authorities can access the information for contact tracing only. The only other access will be by the COVIDSafe Administrator to ensure the proper functioning, integrity and security of COVIDSafe, including to delete your registration information at your request. It will be a criminal offence to use any app data in any other way. The COVIDSafe app cannot be used to enforce quarantine or isolation restrictions, or any other laws. https://www.health.gov.au/resources/apps-and-tools/covidsafe-app



If you are in Australia, you can download the COVID-19 tracking application from the Google Play Store or the App Store.

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