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WORKSTREAM WEEKLY REPORT
TITLE
Digital Infrastructure Weekly Report
11062020-WORKSTREAM Digital Infrastructure WEEKLY REPORT –
Document reference
COVID 19 FINAL
Date and time
11 June 2020, 1500 hrs
Produced by/location
COVID-19 Digital Infrastructure
Reports are required by 0600hrs daily by
[email address] for inclusion in daily
Tactical Insights Report with a publication time of 0900hrs.
Note: The audience for this report includes Hon Kris Faafoi, Minister of Government Digital Services.
Blue text is a change from the previous SITREP.
Executive summary
1. Our revised programme to support COVID-19 Recovery has the following primary actions:
• Technology response and governance – an AoG COVID-19 technology response plan and
supporting oversight recommendations;
• Contact tracing: a joint agency project to develop a COVID card prototype that can be used to
assist the Ministry of Health contact tracing programme;
• Channels: As part of the AoG Channel Strategy governance and implementation led by
Suzanne Stew, progress the digital channels strategy;
• Broker: Address pain points that have emerged as a result of the COVID19 response with
agencies and suppliers to enable effective operations;
• Emerging needs: Work with the Border and Health sectors to enable border management;
and
• Incident management: Support the national COVID-19 response as part of the technology
incident management response.
2. Current communications messages remain unchanged.
3. The next GCDO report will be on Thursday, 18 June 2020.
Key facts and figures (work stream specific metrics)
Key insights – communications channels
4. The GCDO has assisted with the closure of the covid19.govt.nz website, which is being redirected
to uniteforrecovery.govt.nz. The major website search themes last week were: ‘level 1’ and
‘contact tracing’.
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5. Interest in the app / QR codes appears to have fallen away significantly based on search terms and
page visits. However, the last social media update indicates that public support for the app has
been patchy.
Current operational priorities
Support for technology at the border
6. A productive discussion was held with Border agencies this week to identify where technology is
required to support the government’s COVID-19 response. Border sectoral agencies and MoH are
working collaboratively to ensure the border is robust and “safe”, as a primary precursor to
potential safe travel zones.
7. Follow-up is underway with Border and Health sectors to explore technology options, data
transfer and identity management.
COVID-19 contact tracing
8. The GCDO is continuing to support MoH and MBIE with advice on the NZ COVID Tracer app.
9. MoH launched Release 2 of the app on 10 June 2020 with additional functionality to:
• enable contact tracers to push notifications to app users of Exposure Events of Interest if
the app user’s device has appropriate location data relevant to that notice’s date and time
period;
• allow the app user to upload their location history recorded by the app with their consent,
and;
• include haptic features such as a vibration function when a QR code is scanned.
10. An updated Privacy Impact Assessment is available on the MoH website, and we continue to
engage with the Privacy Commissioner and MoH on further development of the app.
11. We anticipate some media coverage of the app update, as media coverage has continued since
the app’s first release.
COVID Card
12. A joint Government Digital Services/Health Cabinet paper in June will include policy advice on
Bluetooth cards and Bluetooth-enabled apps. A second trial to test the cards’ effectiveness to
support contact tracing at a larger scale is subject to ministerial approval following the Cabinet
report back.
13. A final report with findings and recommendations from initial testing of a prototype for a
Bluetooth-enabled COVID Card is almost complete.
Governance for the COVID-19 technology response
14. Ministerial consultation on the GCDO COVID-19 technology response report-back to Cabinet has
now concluded, and the paper has been updated to reflect input from Ministers. The aim is for
the paper to be considered by the Cabinet Government Administration and Expenditure Review
Committee (GOV) on 18 June 2020.
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