Sam Morgan pitched a 'Ko' branded Covid card for automated mass-tracing. Anonymised, encrypted data would be downloaded if a wearer was diagnosed. Photo / Supplied
Sam Morgan pitched a 'Ko' branded Covid card for automated mass-tracing. Anonymised, encrypted data would be downloaded if a wearer was diagnosed. Photo / Supplied
EDITORIAL
On the face of it, Bluetooth contact tracing cards would be a Godsend to communities under the threat of a Covid-19 infection.
New Zealand is one of the first countries in the world to consider a hardware solution to contact tracing, an Eftpos-sized card issued to everyone. Most othercountries have opted for app-based solutions, most often loaded onto mobile phones, such as our Ministry of Health-approved NZ COVID Tracer.
This proposed card would be Bluetooth-enabled to store data until a person received a positive diagnosis. The data would then be uploaded to the cloud, and people who'd been in contact with the infected person notified of potential exposure.
The private sector proposal to produce and distribute five million Bluetooth-enabled cards at a cost of $100 million is one of "a wide variety of technological solutions to contact tracing", being considered by the All of Government Covid-19 response team.
Government Digital Services Minister Kris Faafoi says a Rotorua trial of the Covid tracing card will proceed. Photo / Andrew Warner, file
A trial of the Covid card, involving between 250 to 300 people in Rotorua, is due to get under way after the card was reportedly found to work under "controlled scenarios" in a trial during lockdown run by the University of Otago in conjunction with the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board.
It picked up about 90 per cent of close contacts and up to 10 per cent of false close contacts, which were people too far away to be clinically considered a close contact.
There's a key hurdle. The card needs be worn around the neck on a lanyard, as a pocket or a purse hampers transmission. To be effective, the cards would need to be worn by about 80 per cent of the population.
There are other concerns around the cards having "baked-in technology" - the cards cannot be updated once manufactured - and how and where the data could be stored and accessed.
Concept art for the privately funded Covid Card or 'Ko' card, due to be trialed by the Government later this year. Image / Supplied
The Rotorua trial will help understand whether the cards work in a real-world situation, Government Digital Services Minister Kris Faafoi said. That includes whether people accept and use the cards.
After trading words over the proposal this week with co-creator Sam Morgan, Faafoi is adamant the Rotorua trial will go head.
One crucial measure of success is that it works for the health professionals using any data collected, and that public health officials can use these tools to better isolate infections and protect the country. Any solution therefore, needs to have the full support of the health sector.
This doesn't appear to be the case yet, with one ministry spokesperson telling the Herald this week "there are a number of technical challenges that would need to be overcome for it to be effective".
Consent and trust will be also essential for whichever solution is chosen.
Given the potential breadth and value of the data collected, encryption and other data protection safeguards will be needed, and any storage of data will need to be time-limited - perhaps only long enough to cover the potential incubation period of the virus.
Given the limitations so far identified; the reservations of health professionals as to the efficacy; and the unknown willingness of New Zealanders to take up the cards, the minister is right to test further before considering rolling out a $100m scheme.
We urgently need the best contact tracing system. If this is it, Rotorua may tell us. But deploying anything less than "gold standard" risks further disenfranchising a sceptical populace when another solution may be just around the corner.
