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Australians rush to download coronavirus tracing app, PM's popularity soars

 

FILE PHOTO: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks during a joint press conference held with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Admiralty House in Sydney, Australia, February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - More than a million Australians rushed to download an app designed to help medical workers and state governments trace close contacts of COVID-19 patients, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison's approval rating soared on his pandemic response.

 

Australia has been one of the most successful countries in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, recording just 83 deaths and 6,700 cases, due to border closures, movement restrictions and a stay-at-home policy. It has lowered its infection rate to currently around 1% from 25% in March.

 

Health Minister Greg Hunt said 1.13 million Australians downloaded the tracing app CovidSafe as of 6 a.m. (2000 GMT) on Monday, nearly 4.5% of the country's population.

 

The first one million came within five hours of launching the app, he added.

 

When asked how many people need to download the app for it to be successful, Hunt said "there is no magic number."

 

"As many as possible is our real goal," he added.

 

"It is about assisting our disease experts find people who might have been exposed and we are well ahead of our best hopes and expectations already."

 

The surge in downloads come as a Newspoll conducted for The Australian newspaper showed Morrison enjoyed the best approval rating for a leader since end-2008.

 

Morrison's approval rating has skyrocketed 27 points since the first week of March to 68%, the poll showed.

 

The result was boosted as Morrison jettisoned much of his conservative government's ideology to pledge spending worth more than 10% of GDP, including a A$130 billion subsidy to employers to keep staff they might otherwise have let go.

 

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans estimates that without the subsidy unemployment would have soared to 17% by the end of June, but would now only reach 9%.

 

Business groups in the country have begun lobbying for easing pandemic-related restrictions.

 

A modelling by the Business Council of Australia on Monday showed the A$2 trillion economy could take a A$400 billion ($256 billion) hit if restrictions adopted to fight the spread of Covid-19 continued for six months.

 

Last week, the head of Australia's central bank said the country would suffer its biggest economic contraction since the 1930s in the first half of this year due to the containment measures.

 

He estimated national output would fall by around 10% in the first half of 2020 with unemployment almost doubling to around 10% by June.

 

The states of Queensland and Western Australia have said they would ease some restrictions this week, as both have had new cases in the low single digits in recent days.

 

Western Australia will allow indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people, while Queensland has allowed picnics, retail shopping and drives of up to 50 kms (31 miles) from home. Queensland has also opened its national parks.

 

The most populous states of Victoria and New South Wales, which have the country's coronavirus hotspots, are maintaining strict social and business restrictions.

 

($1 = 1.5640 Australian dollars)

 

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Michael Perry)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-27

 

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[mfd101]

Self-discipline, understanding, action both collective and individual.

 

An interesting contrast with quite a few other countries in current circumstances.

[jaiyen]

This silly app is <deleted> !  Most people have said they will not download it, I wont. Nobody has rushed to install it !  They said they need at least 40% for it to become useful. Here in Perth we have some severe restrictions but groups of 10 are now allowed. The state is closed to outsiders. It is working !  Only 1 case in 4 days,  Not like Thailand where most people dont care as it doesn't affect them !

[mfd101]

52 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

Most people have said they will not download it, I wont

Did you actually read (and understand) the article above?

[ncc1701d]

It’s not just about “now” and covid-19. It will be useful for future contagions and no doubt it will be not perfect when it first rolls out. Not sure what the downside is of downloading it other than it probably takes a few mb of storage space. Unless of course you are of the tin foil hat brigade - in which case... carry on.

[simple1]

Covidsafe: 2 million downloads in less than 24 hours

[CygnusX1]

1 hour ago, ncc1701d said:

Not sure what the downside is of downloading it other than it probably takes a few mb of storage space.

One downside is that having bluetooth on the whole time apparently greatly reduces battery life of the phone. Think that’s a bigger turn-off for most people than any privacy implications.

[AussieBob18]

Guys - download the App. If enough people get the App, they will ease up the restrictions quicker. The App is so that they can track who the people are that any new infected patient has come into close contact with in the days before becoming infected. Delete it later - but download it if you want the lockdowns to be removed. 

 

[metisdead]

A post in violation of fair use policy has been removed:

• Nikkei Asian Review

14) You will not post any copyrighted material except as fair use laws apply (as in the case of news articles). Please only post a link, the headline and the first three sentences.

 

Some troll posts and replies have been removed. 

 

[Cats4ever]

Regrettably you cannot download the app if your version of Android is too old. Not sure how old, but mine is on an 8 year old phone.

[Roadman]

Jeez isn’t a year a major swing in reality. In one country you get a leader who is leading their country with economic strength through a crisis with the people getting on with it, while in an an identical country you get a leader who missed her hijab photo show trashing the country economy while the citizens hide fearfully in their homes. 
 

[AgMech Cowboy]

I'm with Pauline. I wouldn't trust the Government.

[AgMech Cowboy]

17 minutes ago, Roadman said:

an identical country you get a leader who missed her hijab photo

Yeah, you lost me on this one. Well actually, I really didn't follow most of the post.

[samran]

1 hour ago, Cats4ever said:

Regrettably you cannot download the app if your version of Android is too old. Not sure how old, but mine is on an 8 year old phone.

If you upgrade, you can watch the footy on the newer phones. I hear the prelim final last year is a good one to start on ????

Edited April 28, 2020 by samran

[samran]

35 minutes ago, Roadman said:

Jeez isn’t a year a major swing in reality. In one country you get a leader who is leading their country with economic strength through a crisis with the people getting on with it, while in an an identical country you get a leader who missed her hijab photo show trashing the country economy while the citizens hide fearfully in their homes. 
 

Don't worry, the PM got his Ramadan message out this year as well. I'll think you'll find that both sides of the Tasman will do as well as each other. My NZ shares are going well to boot.

 

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by samran

[White Christmas13]

17 hours ago, AussieBob18 said:

Guys - download the App. If enough people get the App, they will ease up the restrictions quicker. The App is so that they can track who the people are that any new infected patient has come into close contact with in the days before becoming infected. Delete it later - but download it if you want the lockdowns to be removed. 

 

I do have it

[mfd101]

From tomorrow's 'Australian' (it being the 250th anniversary of Cook arriving at Botany Bay).

Edited April 28, 2020 by mfd101

[chainarong]

On 4/27/2020 at 6:02 PM, jaiyen said:

This silly app is <deleted> !  Most people have said they will not download it, I wont. Nobody has rushed to install it !  They said they need at least 40% for it to become useful. Here in Perth we have some severe restrictions but groups of 10 are now allowed. The state is closed to outsiders. It is working !  Only 1 case in 4 days,  Not like Thailand where most people dont care as it doesn't affect them !

I fully Support your good comments.

 

[ncc1701d]

On 4/27/2020 at 8:46 PM, CygnusX1 said:

One downside is that having bluetooth on the whole time apparently greatly reduces battery life of the phone. Think that’s a bigger turn-off for most people than any privacy implications.

The draw of battery required to power Bluetooth is extremely small.