When a person tests positive for COVID-19, a thorough and sometimes complicated contact tracing process begins.
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But what makes this process far more efficient is the use of QR codes.
If a person tests positive to COVID-19 and they have signed in using QR codes, contact tracers can take their phone number and run the list of venues they have attended.
Curtis Gregory, the public health director for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, said whenever a person scanned in, they created a record that included where they were, at what time, and their contact details.
He said this provided more certainty as to when an exposure might have happened, and limited the time a business would be affected.
"We're trying to capture as much information as quickly as possible, identify as many venues as quickly as possible, and identify as many contacts as quickly as possible," Mr Gregory said.
With the highly infectious Delta strain now within NSW, signing in for even short visits to venues is important because of how quickly the virus can spread.
Contact tracers also conduct interviews with positive COVID-19 cases to try and establish where they have been and who they have had contact with.
But Mr Gregory said they looked as far back as two weeks and it was difficult for people to remember where they were and when.
When people have not used QR codes, it makes a tricky task for contact tracers much harder.
It is understood that health authorities recently had to open up the potential exposure window at a Wollongong business over two days because the affected customer had not signed in.
Without QR code data, contact tracers have to rely on a person's memory and go through businesses' records, receipts, CCTV and the like to determine the risk level and who might have been affected.
Mr Gregory said it also gave rise to greater concern about who might have been exposed unknowingly.
"This is why we ask everyone to do all the other protective measures," he said, such as wearing a face mask properly, washing hands regularly, minimising movement, and maintaining distance from others.
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