The Fijian Government is encouraging locals and potential visitors to download their Covid-19 touch seek app in the hope that they can be included in a long-term bubble.
The government said all visitors would have to download the careFIJI app, however, it is suffering to convince locals to do so with only 50,000 registered to date.
Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the request would allow Fijians to integrate the search for cross-border contacts with other countries.
He said the application was also essential for the inclusion of Fiji in any bubble.
“When Australia and New Zealand take a look at the Fiji app, you’ll see how many other people have already downloaded it.
“When Australian tourists, if the bubble opens soon, say ‘yes, I can move to Fiji, they are confined to Covid’, in fact, there are covid-19s who can insinuate very temporarily and tell me why they have an app.”
Sayed-Khaiyum called the Fijians who had still downloaded the careFIJI app irresponsible.
Launched in June, it said the careFIJI app used the same code as Singapore and Australia.
It said for a family or group travelling and checking in together, one device with the careFiji app was adequate.
Fiji Airways would also update a form of manual touch search with the main points of consumers without smartphones or unaccompanied minors, Sayed-Khaiyum said.
The app’s provider, Digital Fiji, said it violated users’ privacy.
Digital director Tupoutua’h Baravila said the careFIJI app does not track the user’s location or allow virtual data movement when users were very close to others.
“If I have my phone and downloaded the app, my Bluetooth is enabled, Acting PS Health also has its Bluetooth enabled, there is a virtual handshake that occurs according to its proximity to the user who installed the app and if it has its Bluetooth enabled, however, my touch data was transferred,” he says.
“For you, your loved ones and those around you, the advice is to have it, no one has access to it until you have given your consent to send it to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services.”
‘Act of Rebellion’
Meanwhile, the government expressed fear of the public’s poor reaction to the request.
But the opposition said most Fijians would not download the cell phone app because they did not accept as true with the government.
National Federation Party vice president Lenora Qereqeretabua said others were tired of being belittled by the state.
Qereqeretabua responded to Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s complaints over only 50,000 people downloading the app.
“Let me tell you about the other people who didn’t, ” he said.
“Half of them do not accept as true with this government, the other side is so unhealthy and tired of being criticized, intimidated, sponsored and ordered through this government that it simply refuses.
“They’re doing it as an uplifting act because that’s where the FijiFirst Party leaders took us; brings us to the point where other people do not accept as true with the government and would probably not accept it. “
But Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said careFIJI was designed to be as easy, secure and hassle-free.
Bainimarama said it was available on Google Playstore or the Apple App Store, and because the App used Bluetooth and not data for its core function, careFIJI itself took almost no data to use once installed.
He said he had also used about 10 megabytes to install the app and suggested other people enter the online page without knowledge www.carefiji.digitalfiji.gov.fj
Fiji has 8 Covid-19 assets, all quarantined at the border.
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