“The Government’s delay on revealing the locations the Northland woman who has tested positive for Covid 19 has travelled is reckless and risks making a dangerous situation much worse,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“How can people self-isolate and get tested in a timely manner if the Government won’t tell them they’ve been somewhere they may have contracted the virus?

“People want to take personal responsibility at times like this but the Government needs to be transparent and treat them like adults.

“Hopefully the Northland woman’s assiduous use of QR scanning and having Bluetooth turned on by will give tracers a big helping hand, but the potential for the virus to have spread over the days since she tested positive is of huge concern.

“She deserves real kudos, but appallingly low use of the app by most others means tracing is going to be extremely difficult.

“We know only about 5 per cent of the population is regularly scanning using the official NZ Covid Tracer app, which is why on January 12 ACT said scanning into any premises with a QR code should be made compulsory for those who haven’t switched on the app’s Bluetooth capability.

“Just think how much easier the very onerous task of trying to track and trace across a number of days and dozens of locations would be if a majority of Kiwis used the app.

“Given how busy and mobile New Zealanders are at this time of year it’s possible the virus has spread a long way.

“We hope that’s not the case. In the meantime something must be done to get app use up or the risk of further lockdowns is very real.”

ENDS

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