There are certainly positive things about the development of the Service NSW app to cater for exposure sites.

The data is tailored to the user, who now has in their pocket a list of where they've been.

There is capacity to deliver push notifications, alerting the user to potential exposures based on their check-in history.

But is it reliable enough? Reports of users not receiving push notifications over the weekend have already emerged.

It doesn't provide detail in terms of when exposure may have occurred.

Its introduction means people now can't use a website to see what venues of concern have arisen, and then check against their own movements.

It doesn't cater for those who aren't using, or can't use, the app. They are not an insignificant portion of the community.

Moving to an app-only, limited detail approach provides a false sense of security.

Not listing exposure sites on the heavily-promoted NSW Health website gives the impression there are no venues of concern, let alone cases, in Wagga.

In other news

That website gives few indications COVID is circulating in the Wagga community.

There is a map view, but when you drag Wagga into the window there's not much to see.

There is a search function. The nearest alert for 2650 is 123 kilometres away.

When some venues are published, but none for Wagga, after new detections of the virus, there's an assumption that can be made.

But we on the ground know that's not the case. Nine people tested positive to COVID in Wagga in the last week. There will be more.

There is a raft of exposure sites associated with those cases. It should not be up to screenshots and sharing on social media for the wider community to be aware of them.

The previous central exposure site listings should be working in tandem with the upgraded Service NSW app.

The implementation of one method should not be at the expense of the other.

There's a duty of care and in siloing this information, the government has wiped its hands of it. And, in the process, of us.

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