4. Question No. 4—HealthDr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 4—Health4. Dr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei) to the Minister of Health: What percentage of New Zealanders are using the Government's New Zealand COVID Tracer app on a daily basis and what are its measures of effectiveness?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Health): A total of 617200 users have registered for the COVID Tracer app. Official statistics record the number of scans per day not the number of active users per day. Around 12000 scans are being made each day on average. It's important to remember that the app is just one of the tools available to us. The work of the public health units and the National Close Contact Service remain the mainstays of our contact tracing system. The measure of the app's effectiveness will be how quickly it can be used to support contact tracing in the event that we have cases of COVID-19 in the community that need to be traced.Dr Shane Reti: What are the recent trends in uptake and use of the Government's New Zealand COVID Tracer app?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There's been a flurry of activity over the last week or so. We've seen a significant number of additional posters printed around 350 additional posters being printed per day which is a good sign. There have been tens of thousands—I think 20000 or 30000—of additional users signing up to register for the app over the last week and a bit. We still have a long long way to go to get everybody using it but you know we'll keep pushing it.Dr Shane Reti: What are the reasons for more New Zealanders not using the COVID Tracer app and how will he address this?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Of course one of the big issues is that New Zealanders don't by and large feel an immediate sense of threat from COVID-19. That of course is a sign of our success as a country and the team of 5 million in stamping out COVID19. But the message from the Government is that there is no room for any of us to be complacent here. We all need to do our bit. I'd encourage all members of Parliament to make sure they are using the app and I also say to any member of the public: if they want to know why things like the app are important they could sit down one evening and try and record down everybody that they had come into contact with in the last two weeks. Anybody who has tried to do that exercise will know it's a lot harder than they might think it is.Dr Shane Reti: Given that reply does the Minister have the app and does he scan each QR code he comes in contact with given his recent statements that these numbers are low and we do want to lift our game here?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes I do. In fact I even scan in and out of Copperfield's every day when I'm using it here in the building.Dr Shane Reti: How can he have confidence in the effectiveness of the app when nearly half of the 1558 reviews on the Google download site give it a one star with complaints it's too hard to use?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There's no question—[Interruption] There's no question that there's room for improvement in there. The next—[Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! Order! I'm taking this as a serious question and I'd like to hear the answer and not have it shouted down. Some of us think this issue is important to New Zealand.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There's no question that the app was developed at speed during an emergency situation and of course there is room for improvement. The next update of the app which will be released before the end of this month will deal with many of the common complaints from users including that they can't manually enter in contacts where there isn't a QR code—that will be addressed—and that they can't retrospectively add information into the app; that will be addressed as well. But even if people aren't scanning QR codes it's merely registering for the app that helps the Ministry of Health where contact tracing is required. Already people's contact details from registering for the app have been used on multiple occasions as part of legitimate contact tracing exercises. So even signing up for the app and making sure that your contact details are up to date is actually a significant step that all New Zealanders should be taking.Hon Grant Robertson: Can the Minister confirm the recently found information that we're up to 3½ stars on Apple and does he credit himself with that?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Of course popularity is growing on this side of the House on a daily basis.Dr Shane Reti: What role does an effective coronavirus tracing app have in recovering an economy and could a poorly performing app hinder recovery?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: One of the things that of course could hinder a recovery is another outbreak of COVID-19. That could of course be caused by a variety of things including premature reopening of the border which is being advocated by some members in this House—not on this side of the House though. Our first line of defence is our border. The second line of defence is our testing and contact tracing regime and we need everybody to play their part in ensuring that there is an effective contact tracing regime in place should we need it.