Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep;46(8):102386.
doi: 10.1016/j.telpol.2022.102386. Epub 2022 May 24.

COVID-19 contact-tracing smartphone application usage-The New Zealand COVID Tracer experience

Bronwyn E Howell  1   2 , Petrus H Potgieter  3   2
Affiliations

COVID-19 contact-tracing smartphone application usage-The New Zealand COVID Tracer experience

Bronwyn E Howell et al. Telecomm Policy. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Contact tracing has been a central pillar of the nonpharmaceutical health system response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries around the world have devoted unprecedented levels of resources to build up their testing and tracing capabilities, including the development and deployment of smartphone-based applications. Yet despite these nontrivial investments, the body of academic literature evaluating the effects of the smartphone-based applications remains scant and many apps have not delivered the promised benefits (Bano et al. 2021). We contribute to this body of empirical evidence by analysing data on uptake and usage of New Zealand's QR code-based application New Zealand COVID Tracer (NZCT). Our paper uses descriptive statistics and regression analysis to focus on the likelihood of an individual registering to use the application, the likelihood that a registered user will use the application to scan QR codes, and the extent of that usage, measured as the number of codes scanned daily. In addition, we take advantage of the "natural experiment" offered by the decision in August 2021 following the establishment of endemic community transmission of COVID-19 to make use of the application mandatory from 7 September 2021 to assess the effect of this policy on usage. We find that despite increasing numbers of individuals downloading the application over time, the number of active devices and scanning activity was very low, even when community outbreaks occurred (i.e. actual infection risk was higher). Mandating use (separate and distinct from increased infection risk) led to an increase in the number of scans in total via an increase in the number of active devices only.

Keywords: COVID-19; Community transmission; Contact tracing; New Zealand; New Zealand COVID Tracer; Smartphone applications; health informatics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
NZ COVID Tracer: App Downloads and Scans.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
NZ COVID Tracer–Scans and Manual Entries.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
NZ COVID Tracer–Business Activity.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
NZ COVID Tracer–Device activity.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
NZ COVID Tracer–Percentage device activity.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
NZ COVID Tracer–Daily scanning activity.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
NZ COVID Tracer–Daily activity per active device.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
NZ COVID Tracer–Daily activity per active device (July to November 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ali Z.S., Dang H. Factors impacting the use of the New Zealand COVID tracer application in New Zealand. Smart Health. 2022 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Armbruster B., Brandeau M.L. Cost-effective control of chronic viral diseases: Finding the optimal level of screening and contact tracing. Mathematical Biosciences. 2010;224(1):35–42. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baker M.G., Kvalsvig A., Verrall A.J. New Zealand’s COVID-19 elimination strategy. Medical Journal of Australia. 2020;213(5):198–200. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bano M., Arora C., Zowghi D., Ferrari A. 2021 IEEE 29th international requirements engineering conference. IEEE; 2021. The rise and fall of COVID-19 contact-tracing apps: When NFRs collide with pandemic; pp. 106–116. September.
    1. Braithwaite I., Callender T., Bullock M., Aldridge R.W. Automated and partly automated contact tracing: A systematic review to inform the control of COVID-19. The Lancet Digital Health. 2020;2(11):e607–e621. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources