One can download the app to protect self, one's family and friends and save the lives of many other Australians. The COVIDSafe app helps find close contacts of COVID-19 cases. The app helps state and territory health officials to quickly contact people who may have been exposed to COVID-19. It speeds up the current manual process of finding people who have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19. When you download the app, you provide your name, mobile number and postcode. You then select your age range. Once this is done you shall get a confirmation text message to complete the installation. The system then creates a unique encrypted reference code just for you.

COVIDSafe recognises other devices with the COVIDSafe app installed and Bluetooth enabled. When the app recognises another user, it notes the date, time, distance and duration of the contact and the other user's reference code. The COVIDSafe app does not collect your location.

When someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, the state and territory health officials will ask them or their parent/guardian who they have been in contact with. If they also have the app and provide their permission, the encrypted contact information from the app will be uploaded to a highly secure information storage system. Our state and territory health officials will then use the contacts captured by the app to support their usual contact tracing and call people to let them or their parent/guardian know that they may have been exposed offer advice on next steps like what to look out for, when, how and where to get tested and what to do to protect friends and family from exposure. The health officials would not name the person who was infected.

The app is absolutely safe and can be deleted from the phone at any time. RGIT Australia urges everyone to download the app for one's safety and also for your friends and family. For further information,
visit https://www.rgit.edu.au/blog/covidsafe-app or connect with us on (+61 3) 8639 9000.