Page 2270 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 4 August 2021
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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing teams have been working to respond to positive cases, support individuals who are in isolation or quarantine and to minimise the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks within the community.
The contact tracers in ACT Health have done an incredible job of keeping Canberra safe and strong through their ongoing contact tracing operations. Experiences across the country have demonstrated the importance of ensuring that we are well placed to efficiently respond to outbreaks in the ACT through swift and effective contact tracing efforts. Mandatory check-in has been adopted nationally in response to the recommendations of the National Contact Tracing Review, a report for Australia’s national cabinet, which set out the characteristics for optimal contact tracing and COVID-19 outbreak management systems.
Check-in requirements are currently detailed in the Public Health (Check In Requirements) Emergency Direction 2021 (No 2), which states that restricted businesses and venues, as well as retail settings, public transport and taxi and rideshare services across the ACT, are required to register for and use the Check In CBR app to collect contact information of anyone aged 16 years and older who enters the premises or uses a service.
The ACT government’s Check In CBR app was developed by ACT Health Directorate officials to provide a fast, easy and secure mechanism to record the attendance of individuals who have entered a restricted premise, in line with the Public Health Emergency Declaration. The Check In CBR app has proven to be incredibly successful. Following the launch of the Check In CBR app in September 2020, more than 17,000 venues have registered with the app. The app has been downloaded more than 900,000 times and there have been over 30 million check-ins.
Canberrans have clearly embraced the use of the Check In CBR app and it continues to be an important tool in our defence against the transmission of COVID-19 in the ACT. The personal data collected through Check In CBR is collected and securely stored by ACT Health and deleted after 28 days. Personal information is only accessed if it is required for contact tracing purposes to ensure that health authorities are able to quickly and effectively identify potential close and casual contacts of a positive case. The ACT government recognises the need for strong privacy protections of the information collected through the Check In CBR app. Although the Check In CBR privacy policy clearly outlines the way in which personal information is stored and accessed, this bill provides additional clarity around the security of this information and adds some further restrictions to when the information can be accessed for the purposes of investigation and prosecution.
The amendments will entrench within the Act the key aspects of the privacy policy; namely, that the information is provided directly to, and stored by, ACT Health; that it is stored for 28 days and is then deleted, unless a person is subject to an investigation or prosecution for failing to comply with the public health direction or provides false or misleading information; and can be used only for contact tracing and contact tracing compliance purposes.
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