Coronavirus: Better Covid-19 tracing needed to save our economy

Our contact tracing methods in shops and cafes are a collective stuff-up.

Our retailers are letting us down and so is government policy, technology and our own personal attitudes. Yet every part of our economy and the future re-opening of our borders rely on us nailing contact tracing.

Level 1 is creeping up and we might be dancing around with the Aussies very soon. That doesn't mean QR codes, apps and pesky clipboards will be defunct. They are the final and most important safety-net we possess.

Don't rely on an economic jab

The entire world population wants a jab if a vaccine is discovered.

Waiting for manufacture, distribution and a jabbed tourist to turn up on a holiday to New Zealand is going to add an even longer tail to the economic pain.

We must open our minds to opening our borders, pre-vaccine, with many layers of risk management. We already have a culture that predisposes us to doing it well. We hunt down fruit fly, sniff out a banana in luggage and rip muddy boots from the feet of tourists. Other countries are aghast at our vigour. 

While it currently seems implausible to shove a foot long cotton bud up the nose of every visitor, we probably need to consider close alternatives.

The Government will formulate these layers and we assume it will consist of air-bridges from safe countries, pre-travel or in-airport testing, heat screening, and sniffer dogs to catch asymptomatic cases if trials prove successful.

When a Covid-19 case slips between the cracks, the big safety net supporting our border controls and economy must be a robust, quick and consistent tracing system.

We will need to become a nation of five million vigilantes. Every single one of us has to lead by example. If we can't do it ourselves, we can't ask the tourists to care any more than we do.

If you're heading away for Queens Birthday, will you recall everywhere you've been in two weeks time? If you're infected with Covid-19, bank accounts provide a good trail, but what if we pre-paid for an activity, paid in cash, didn't buy anything, or a friend treated us? Think of a young person or tourist, three bars a night over multiple nights, drunk and on holiday. The lists being kept for secondary tracing are of no use if an infected person doesn't have a good memory, a highly accurate bank account or a movement log.

If you need an economic reason to give up some privacy, just look at the Reserve Bank forecast that another level 4 lockdown could leave us with 18 per cent unemployment and a halving of house prices.

Right now the Government app is as useful as a wet tea towel. It's being seen as optional for retailers and that renders it useless as a movement log. If we don't make it habit-forming quickly, we'll lose momentum.

What's going wrong?

Let's start with public shops and cafes. It's a little bit embarrassing.

What's your excuse for not having the Government QR-code in your window? It's a Government app and they're promising further developments. Your future depends on it.

Instead you have your own QR codes, surrounded by yellow and black government branding. I tried five shops and cafes and got "error" before I realised we have a QR-bungle going on.

In the words of one Christchurch barista, "yeah we're not using that Government thing, no one's really interested, because they have to sign in to ours or use the paper clipboard". I commented that we need a full record of where we've been and got told, "nah, it's just too confusing".

In their defence, this double system is bonkers. They are obliged to keep a list and the Government app doesn't ping my info to them.

Consumers also have a lot to answer for. I've stood behind people in cafes who looked at the clipboard, shrugged and said, "I can't be bothered". Not all clipboards are monitored and it's tricky to call out a stranger. Then there's the comedians signing in as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and the weirdo in Nelson who has stalked one of my mother's friends by getting her home phone number off a cafe list.

For the vast majority of us who are pretty compliant, we are already getting contact tracing fatigue. After the fourth clipboard in a day, every inch of you screams "no" and you stop spending.

For the Government's part, regulatory inconsistency downgrades the value of contact tracing in our minds. An hour in a supermarket and there's no tracing, but a two-minute takeaway coffee requires my phone number.

One café takes no details because they're a general store and another because they sell retail goods with coffee on the side. The next has a table with a cup of clean pens, a cup of dirty pens, sanitiser and a clipboard requiring enough detail to raid my bank account (yes my signature too). No wonder Donald Duck and the stalker are at the table next to me.

The Government sits at the bottom of all this and technology holds the key. I hope there's a way my phone will go "ping" as I walk into each supermarket, store or restaurant. Or one universal QR system where my log transfers a mobile number to a retailer or cafe. There should be no inconsistencies; every public venue needs a code.

Go hard and go fast now needs to apply to contact tracing. It is the conduit between the safety of our citizens, our economic productivity returning and opening our borders pre-vaccine. Dramatic improvement is needed before the Aussies arrive.

Janine Starks is a financial commentator with expertise in banking, personal finance and funds management. Opinions in this column represent her personal views. They are general in nature and are not a recommendation, opinion or guidance to any individuals in relation to acquiring or disposing of a financial product. Readers should not rely on these opinions and should always seek specific independent financial advice appropriate to their own individual circumstances.