Covid 19 coronavirus: QR scans still too low despite bubble, app game

Focus: Shoppers are happy to give their details in the new normal of taking personal information for contact tracing. Video / Dean Purcell

Kiwis appear to still be worryingly complacent about scanning QR codes - even after the Government gamified the NZ Covid Tracer app to get more people using it.

Ministry of Health data also shows the opening of the transtasman bubble, while bringing a bump in visitor numbers, hasn't led to any big lift in scan numbers.

While some 2,822,462 people have now downloaded the app, it's only been when New Zealand has shifted alert levels that scanning rates have moved closer to where experts say they should be.

Over a 24-hour period at the weekend, for instance, about total 535,262 scans were registered - a third of what was recorded soon after Auckland went into lockdown on February 28, and the rest of New Zealand moved to level 2.

Even by the time Auckland shifted back to level 1 on March 12, about 1.5 million daily scans were still being recorded.

Since then, scan rates have continued to fall over time.

Opening the travel bubble to Australia hasn't changed the trend in NZ COVID Tracer participation. QR Code scanning trending down (although not massively in recent weeks), Bluetooth Tracing ticking up a little bit. Are folks coming to NZ scanning everywhere they go, as requested? pic.twitter.com/iaVL17P3bi

— Andrew Chen (@andrewtychen) May 13, 2021

"There's two sets of changes that we've looked at - one was the relatively recent update of the app, through gamification, and the second was the increase in the movement of people, with the bubble opening," University of Auckland researcher Dr Andrew Chen said.

"Between the two of those things, you would have hoped it would have increased usage - but that hasn't eventuated."

Ministry of Health data also shows the opening of the transtasman bubble, while bringing a bump in visitor numbers, hasn't led to any big lift in scan numbers. Photo / Greg Bowker

While the bubble's opening marked a clear uptick in app registrations - there were 2,247 on April 20, compared with 843 the same day the week before - scan totals weren't noticeably different to those over the previous few weeks.

That was despite travellers coming into New Zealand being urged to use the app wherever they went - and industry figures indicating more people were coming here than going to Australia.

University of Auckland researcher Dr Andrew Chen said the QR scanning data suggested Kiwis had a "low perception of risk" from Covid-19. Photo / Supplied

"I can understand people coming from Australia and being told you should be scanning, then seeing that nobody else is doing it, and thinking, well, why should I do it?" said Chen, a research fellow at the university-based Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures.

"We know that one of the advantages of having the QR code approach is that it creates a kind of visual compliance - when people see others doing it, it reminds them they should too - so the opposite can also be true."

Earlier that month, gamification features like rewarding users with badges for scanning 14 days in a row were added to the app - this similarly brought no significant boost.

Chen said the data suggested Kiwis had a "low perception of risk" from Covid-19.

"I think people are hearing a lot about the vaccines, and there aren't any community cases here," he said.

"But we only have to look at places like Taiwan to remember that the virus can break through, despite even the best efforts, so we shouldn't be complacent."

Chen said the Government, which has so far decided against mandating scanning, could improve uptake in the meantime by resolving digital inclusion challenges for people.

He added it was positive to see the number of users with Bluetooth functionality switched on - currently nearly 1.3 million - had stayed stable.

"That's something like 35 per cent of the adult population at this point, but we'd like it to be 60 per cent," he said.

"So if we could get that rate to two million, that'd be good."

Regularly using the app was critical in being able to give contact tracing services a 14-day log of personal movement.

Just as importantly, it allowed tracers to track down others who might have been exposed to the virus, and having a log also meant they could match up cases, and potential transmission, where check-ins overlapped.

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