Test, trace, maintain social distance, and keep travel bans and quarantines in place. These measures will help Australia keep the coronavirus in check as we gradually emerge from lockdown hibernation.
Contact tracing is being touted as essential to controlling the spread of COVID-19, but it comes with alarming concerns related to our rights to privacy.
From conflicts with specialised medical devices, through to unresolved problems with iPhone functionality, COVIDSafe is in need of updates. A major one may come within the next few weeks.
A critical problem with the bill is it allows the federal government to collect much more personal data from COVIDSafe users than is necessary for contact tracing.
Bluetooth wireless communication makes it possible to track when people have been exposed to people infected with the coronavirus. The right cryptography scheme keeps alerts about exposures private.
Technology exists that can verify if you’ve come into contact with an infected person without revealing your location or identity – governments just need to be willing to use it.
While preliminary tests indicate user data isn’t being sent to the government, a publicly-available source code is needed to ensure the app’s transparency.
As New Zealand prepares to ease its lockdown from April 28, new COVID-19 clusters are likely to emerge – but a combination of testing and contact tracing should be able to stamp out major outbreaks.
In addition to testing and special facilities for COVID-19 patients, the country’s government-run tracking system allows the health care system to identify infected people and their contacts.
Testriono, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta and Iqra Anugrah, Institute for Economic and Social Research, Education, and Information (LP3ES)
Social science researchers can help make sure contact tracing is carried out in all provinces in Indonesia.
New Zealand will begin easing its national lockdown from next Tuesday, after an extra five days of some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 restrictions. Six NZ experts give their take on the news.
The variation captured in these genomes, when compared to genomes sampled elsewhere, provides a fingerprint that might be associated with a particular virus and a particular cluster of transmission.