The app was created in two days by Napier business Webfox. Photo / Supplied
The app was created in two days by Napier business Webfox. Photo / Supplied
Hawke's Bay based software company Webfox has created an app to help with Covid-19 contact tracing.
The app is called Covid-19 Register and it allows people to check-in to a business or venue with their cellphones instead of using a provided pen and paper.
The idea came after Webfox Director and Developer James Simmonds and Studio Manager Alexis Simmonds had been to a restaurant and were given a pen and paper to check-in.
The company has funeral homes as clients, who also brought up the issue of using paper and pen for checking in visitors.
"We really just wanted to do something for the community and help in a way that we knew we could," Alexis said.
The whole team including James, Alexis and three developers worked for two days straight to get the project up and running.
Essential businesses can register their business location so guests are able to check in by scanning a displayed QR code at the premises or by checking-in on the app and showing someone at the venue.
Visitors can also download the app themselves and check-in to a venue on the app and record where they have been.
The app allows close contacts to be traced and contacted if a case of Covid-19 is found to have visited the premises.
They can also trace where a visitor has been previously and who may have been at a premises at a similar time.
"For the likes of the Ministry of Health, if they have a confirmed case and have one location at a certain time, we can give them the data of who was there at that time then follow through with all the subsequent places," James said.
"It can provide a snapshot of the flow on effect," he said.
Currently essential services such as funeral homes or supermarkets can use the app.
When non-essential businesses are able to re-open anyone who has people attending their business or location can use the app.
James said the service could also become available to other countries and businesses.
"The first priority is just to get it out there so people can use it and not have to use pen and paper," James said.
"We can make it available to anyone who wants to use it," he said.
Hastings District Councillor Wendy Schollum who used to own a software development company said: "It's great seeing a Hawke's Bay based business trying to support the New Zealand community and essential services by using their skills to provide a free app.
"I found it really heartening that Webfox basically halted work on everything else to try and provide something to New Zealand to make it a safer place for essential service providers.
"There's risk associated with using a pen that multiple other people have used and so they've developed an app that allows people to use their mobile phone to register," she said.
