Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner and Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate had earlier on Friday suggested a move away from the app at some venues, also citing the alternatives for proving vaccination and sites such as supermarkets accepting unvaccinated people anyway.
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“The state government’s not using their app for the intended purpose, and people are questioning why they should as well,” Cr Schrinner said on Friday.
Responding to the mayors’ calls, Ms Palaszczuk said with the Omicron peak approaching by early February she “need[ed] people to keep checking in”.
“That is to ensure that vaccinated people are going into certain venues so they can feel safe during this particular period of time,” she said. “And secondly, if there is a big outbreak, we also want to make sure that we can actually let people know from those venues.”
As a result, Ms Palaszczuk said the app would be in use for the forseeable future but did flag a review “once we get through this wave”.
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No such large outbreaks or superspreader events have yet been listed by health authorities. Groups have instead emerged on social media since the halt on exposure site publication to share notices from venues in their local area instead.
Before the introduction of rules banning unvaccinated people from visiting some sites across the state in mid-December, use of the check-in app had dropped to the lowest levels since launch.
The government had initially said the rules would be reviewed once a 90 per cent vaccination rate was reached — now expected this week — but have since said they would likely remain without stating an end date.
Such restrictions were largely scrapped in NSW last month, while their potential use in Victoria until 2023 had raised concerns among a number of health and vaccination uptake experts.
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‘Redundant’: Health experts call time on check-in app as Premier digs in
Source: Philippines Alive
