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Here’s what you need to know about the COVIDSafe app

17 June 2020
COVID-19
On a white background is a green panel with the words: download the covidsafe app today. At right is a brown hand holding a white phone with a logo on it in green, an image of australia and teh words covidsafe wrapped around it.

Learn about COVIDSafe, a new mobile phone app developed to help protect everyone in Australia from the spread of coronavirus.

A new mobile phone app has been developed to help protect everyone in Australia from the spread of coronavirus. It makes it faster for public health officers to find people who have been in contact with someone diagnosed with coronavirus. Finding you quickly means you can better protect yourself, your family and your friends from being infected and to get help to support your health.

If you have a mobile phone, download the app to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

What is the COVIDSafe app?

The app operates in the background on your phone as you go about your day. It uses a 'Bluetooth' signal to communicate with other phones that are close by which also have the app. It is only about the coronavirus: it only records the date, time, distance and duration of contact. It does not record your location or movement.

Public health officers can only access the information to help find people who may have been exposed to the virus. The information is stored for 21 days and then automatically deleted. This information is coded and stored in the app on your phone. No-one, not even you, can access the information. And special laws have been put in place to protect your privacy.

How do I set up the app?

The app is free and downloading it is your choice.

You can download it from the Apple app store for iOS phones or from Google Play for Android phones.

After downloading the app, you will be asked to register by entering a name, phone number, postcode and age range into the app.

When coronavirus is no longer a risk in Australia, you will be reminded to delete the app from your phone. This will delete all of the information that is stored in the app.

How does COVIDSafe help protect the community?

If you are diagnosed with coronavirus, a public health officer will ask you about everyone you have been close to recently. This means that you need to try and remember everyone who was no more than two big steps away from you for at least 15 minutes in the last two weeks. This can be hard to remember. Using the app makes it much easier.

If you have downloaded the app, you can choose to give the health officers access to the information on the app (which would have recorded who you had been in close contact with). This will enable the health officers to quickly identify and contact the right people and prevent the virus spreading.

Who will use the information?

The public health officers in your state or territory will only have access to this information so they can contact and let you know:

  • what to look out for
  • if you need to quarantine
  • how, when and where to get tested, and
  • how you can protect yourself, your family, your friends, Elders and the community.

Find out more

More information about COVID-19

It is important to stay informed through official sources. For more information about coronavirus, visit australia.gov.au or call the National Coronavirus Helpline on 1800 020 080.