Taskforce to push use of Samoa Travel Tracer App

By Talaia Mika

APIA, SAMOA – 07 FEBRUARY 2022: A multi-disciplinary Special Taskforce is now behind a major push and promotion of the Samoa Travel tracer app.

This follows a dismal result of only 5% of Samoa’s population with smartphone access have downloaded the App since it was launched in September 2021.

It is a low percentage to assist the nation in tracing contacts for Covid-19 at such time when Samoa’s number of positive cases has increased rapidly for the first time.

The Special Taskforce comprises the Ministry of Health, Samoa Tourism Authority, Digicel, Vodafone, Samoa IT Association, Chamber of Commerce, MPE, PSC.

Digicel’s Chairman, Pepe Christian Fruean, said the 6,321 total of downloads including 4,307 who have registered is a very low target considering there are 100,000 plus smartphone users in the country. There have also been a number of promotional efforts done targeting the local community to grow awareness for people to download the app.

Members of the Samoa Covid-19 Travel Tracer App Special Task Force.

“Our app usage is a lot less than we expected so we encourage people to use the app and as one of the tools to keep the country safe,” Pepe said.

The Samoa travel tracer app is a public health and safety tool created to assist Samoa in tracing contacts of Covid-19 cases.

Asked about poor service connection in some parts of the country mainly in rural areas, Vodafone CEO, Nofoasaefa Satish Sharma said they are working on expanding mobile tours in the country.

“But for now, Vodafone has 103 mobile towers on the island and I could understand that there are some families deep in the forest that the signals could not be able to penetrate, but they can come closer to the closest towers to their location to get the signal,” he said.

“But then you don’t need internet connection to download the app because it’s free of charge so they should be fine to download the app. “It all comes down to the person if they want to download the app or not,” he said.

Some of the key messages for downloading the App:

• Privacy is maintained – the app doesn’t track User-location or record the personal information of the user;
• Download and register – Users must install the app and register after downloading it this is very important in order to support contact tracing efforts by the Ministry of Health to keep Samoa safe;
• Low Power Consumption – The App runs using Low energy Bluetooth and power consumption is considerably low;
• Data not required to use App – while data is initially needed to download the app, it doesn’t actually use data when it’s running/scanning (using Bluetooth);
• Keep Bluetooth on – Users will be notified that the app is scanning. If this notification isn’t showing, please check and ensure Bluetooth is turned on.
• Physical location isn’t tracked – The App traces/records close contact data among App users who come into Bluetooth range with other users. It doesn’t track actual locations where users come into close contacts with each other.