Fijians are being urged to update their careFIJI Contact Tracing Application as it now has the QR CHECK-IN feature available.

The careFIJI App has helped the Ministry of Health to quickly identify and notify Fijians who have had contact with someone carrying COVID-19.

Attorney General and Minister for Communications, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this new QR-code based function will strengthen the efficacy of contact tracing data, giving their contact tracer another leg-up to stay ahead of the spread of the virus.

Sayed-Khaiyum says as more businesses are approved to re-open with COVID-safe operational plans, careFIJI QR codes should be at the door of every single business in Fiji.

He adds that by keeping ourselves at the cutting edge of new COVID-containment technology, will keep Fijians safe, keep COVID-safe compliant businesses open so that people can go back to their jobs and have those jobs sustained and, create more employment.

The careFIJI CHECK-IN feature will allow individuals to scan QR codes available at the entry and exit point of businesses and other entities.

This will assist the Ministry of Health to quickly identify and isolate clusters and pinpoint the time of entry and exit at a location.

This feature complements the existing Bluetooth based contact tracing functionality which assists to identify the individuals who were in close proximity to a COVID-19 case.

Contact tracing apps with similar functionality are in use in countries like Singapore and New Zealand to complement their manual contracting efforts.

The Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport will facilitate the registration and approvals for businesses through the careFIJI CHECK-IN portal to obtain the QR codes and businesses need to prominently display the QR code at strategic areas of their premises.