As Operation Trace comes to an end today, Police Commissioner and State Coordinator Grant Stevens commends the public on their continued support in helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by using the QR COVID SAfe Check-In when entering SA businesses.
Operation Trace was formally launched on Thursday 13 May by Commissioner Stevens and continued until today, Friday 21 May.
The expectation is that members of our community are well versed by now on their requirements to check-in, however SA Police took an educational approach, and used the operation as an opportunity to engage and communicate with the community and businesses to increase their usage in the QR COVID SAfe Check-In.
The operation included the use of plain clothes police officers to ensure that people are checking in and providing their contact details when they enter a business or attend a public activity.
During Operation Trace, QR check-ins increased by between 500,000 to 600,000 per day and on Saturday 15 May, the highest number of check-ins were recorded totalling 1.78 million.
A total of 563 cautions were issued to individuals with one person receiving an expiation notice, and 83 businesses received a caution.
The QR Code 'check in' process is a vital tool for contact tracing and significantly assists in 'stopping the spread of COVID-19' within the South Australian community. Failing to do so may have an adverse impact on our ability to respond to an outbreak.
If a person in South Australia tests positive to COVID-19, the COVID SAfe Check-In will enable SA Health to quickly identify and contact others who visited the same place at the same time and who may have been exposed to the virus.
The information is only used for official contact tracing purposes in reducing the spread of COVID-19.
Members of the public are encouraged to keep doing the right thing and check in where required to.
Businesses must also ensure that they are complying with their obligations by having QR codes displayed, providing a secure hard copy check-in option and ensuring as far as possible that customers and patrons are checking in.
Information about how to get a QR code is available at https://www.covid-19.sa.gov.au/restrictions-and-responsibilities/covid-safe-check-in
Full details and requirements in relation to using the COVID SAfe Check-In system are located within the Emergency Management (Public Activities No 24) (COVID-19) Direction 2021.
If you require further information you can call the SA COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787 between the hours of 9am to 5pm 7 days per week or go to the SA Health website at www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/ or www.sa.gov.au/covid-19
