Thank God, The Service NSW App Is Rolling Out Push Notifications For Case Alerts From Friday

service nsw app push notifications case alerts update

The Service NSW app will begin sending push notifications to users who have checked into a venue where a COVID case has also been present, after the app’s latest case alerts feature was discovered to be quietly updating check-in histories this week.

Following the realisation that over 700,000 COVID case alerts had been tacked on to peoples’ check-in histories, without actually alerting them to the fact they’d been in the same venue as a positive case, the roll out of push notification functionality has been brought forward to this Friday, October 29.

This feature was previously believed to be implemented from December 1st, as the need for intensive contact tracing slowed down.

Service NSW CEO Damon Rees told 9News the push notifications will start this week, and alerts will be sent to people who have been at a venue on the same day as a positive COVID-19 case.

“For customers who opt-in to receive them, they will receive a push notification indicating that something in their history has changed and they should go and check,” he said.

“If there’s been a confirmed visit to a venue by someone who is COVID-positive, and if you’ve visited that venue in the 24 hours following, then that would appear on your history.”

The push notifications from Service NSW will be sent to anyone who is considered a casual contact, and NSW Health will continue to directly call anyone who is considered a close contact.

As always, if you find you’ve been in the same venue as a positive case and are a casual contact, keep an eye out for symptoms and go get a COVID test as soon as you start to develop anything.

If you’ve been contacted by your local health department as a close contact of a COVID case, then get a test immediately and isolate until you receive a negative result.

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