Check into the Covid-19 Tracker App everyday – Ahearn

Everyone should ensure they check into the Covid-19 Tracker App on their phones every day, a Fine Gael Senator has said.

Senator Garret Ahearn, from Tipperary, said, “We need to make sure that we are doing everything possible to stop the spread of Covid-19. This means taking personal responsibility by limiting the number of contacts we have”.

“But another simple way we can all take personal responsibility and play our part in preventing the spread of the virus is by helping to track and trace our close contacts by ensuring we check into the Covid-19 Tracker App each day.

“Back in October, I was diagnosed with COVID-19 and I still remember getting that red alert

on my phone to say that I was a close contact. That meant I must self-isolate for 14 days, get in contact

with my GP, get a test and get the result.

“Finding out I was a close contact and ultimately testing positive for Covid-19 all stemmed from the COVID-19 app giving me a red alert. This prevented me from potentially spreading the virus to other people and ultimately saving lives.

“Whilst it’s great that over 2.3m people have downloaded the Covid-19 Tracker App, only a fraction of those people are checking in. It has improved in recent weeks but on Monday and Tuesday of this week, around 200,000 checked in both days – less than 10pc of those registered.

“We still have a long way to go to ensure we are fully utilising the effectiveness of the app. This app will save lives and we can all play our small part by finding those 20 seconds to check into the app at the start of each day.”

“It’s also imperative that you keep your Bluetooth switched on your phone as the app will not work without it. This will make no difference to your battery life as it uses Bluetooth LE (low energy).

“The app only uses approximately 1mb a day which is the equivalence of 6 minutes of internet browsing. There should be no excuses for people not signing into the app each day,” concluded Senator Ahearn.