Covid 19 App poll.

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Originally Posted by vnx205

All the information I have seen says you have to be within 1.5 metres for the app to record a contact.

Unless everyone is driving something shorter than a Smartcar, the problem you describe can't happen.

Do you have a source that says 10 metres rather than 1.5 metres?

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Bluetooth has a range up to about 12m - I know this because I have checked it with my smart watch and phone - the watch needs to be within BT range of the phone and when outside of range it alarms and displays a disconnected icon. With the phone in a back room of my standard suburban house I can get to the letterbox out near the street before the watch disconnects - about 12m.

So the source that with app will pick up other phones with the app installed up to 10m away is certainly reasonable.

Garry

COVIDSafe app | Australian Government Department of Health

There is no mention of 1.5m.

It does state that "it notes the date, time, distance and duration of the contact" but I can't find any information that suggests that bluetooth distance measuring is all that accurate. At best the information I have seen and mostly don't understand, says that it is only accurate to within a few metres.

My noise cancelling headphones stay connected to my S5 phone playing music when well over 50m away and stay connected when I'm inside the tow-behind metal seed cart over 10m away.

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Originally Posted by Graeme

My noise cancelling headphones stay connected to my S5 phone playing music when well over 50m away and stay connected when I'm inside the tow-behind metal seed cart over 10m away.

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Tsk, tsk. How are you ever going to pick up a subtle change in the mechanical symphony which could be the start, or finish, of something big?[bigwhistle]

They're not that good but do make a big difference to higher pitch noises and allow phone conversations which are not possible without them.

I didn't write that I had read that bluetooth only had a range of 1.5 metres. I said I had read that a contact was only recorded if the phones were within 1.5 metres of each other.

The issue is not about the potential range of bluetooth. The issue is about how this app works.

I still haven't found an article that says the app records contacts out to 10, 12 or 50 metres.

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Originally Posted by ChookD2

Go shopping at the supermarket. How many people are you within 10m of for 15 minutes or more?

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Zero.

Do people really believe that it takes 15 minutes to contract the virus? Who else turns their head away and holds their breath until passers-by have gone?

My local PO won't supply pens because they think that they need to be discarded once used, yet they insist on keeping the door closed so that everyone touches both the inside and outside handles twice every time even though I drew this to their attention.

I read the 15 minutes was adopted to filter out minor contacts that were unlikely to result in infection, so the contact tracers could concentrate on the most likely contacts.

Its obviously a compromise to keep the data load and tracing work to an acceptable level but it gives a false indication of the level and therefore the persistence of the virus in the community. The number of reports that I've heard this morning of local people having gone visiting the moment the NSW restrictions were slightly relaxed concerns me.