The COVIDSafe app has not detected a single unique coronavirus case in almost a month and has found just 17 unique cases in the community, a Senate committee has been told.
The 17 unique cases – all identified in NSW – represent cases that had not been uncovered by tracing teams across the country.
The app, downloaded seven million times, has cost taxpayers up to $5 million and has been criticised for the small number of infections it has traced, even during Victoria’s second wave.
Labor’s health spokesman Chris Bowen said he supported the app as a tool to ease the burden on contact tracers sourcing COVID-19 cases.
But he said given Australia has recorded 27,520 cases of COVID-19 with hundreds of thousands of potential contacts – the app had proved ineffective.
“This app has been a huge bungle,” he said in a statement.
Health Department associate secretary Caroline Edwards said the 17 unknown cases uncovered by the app had led contact tracers to a total of 80 close contacts.
She also said more than 1800 people in Victoria who were contacted by contact tracers were found to have had the mobile app.
"Obviously in the context of very strong restrictions people aren't having contact with many people," she told a Senate estimates hearing on Monday.
"But we think that puts us in an extremely good position to use the app going forward as restrictions ease in Victoria."
Launching the app in April, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was vitally important to Australia's recovery.
"We need the COVIDSafe app as part of the plan to save lives and save livelihoods," he said.
"The more people who download this important public health app, the safer they and their family will be."
The app is part of the government’s COVIDSafe strategy, estimated to have cost about $70 million, including advertising about social distancing and hygiene practices.
