The Cook Islands has announced that an updated contact tracing app is now complete, and is compatible with the New Zealand Covid Tracer app.
It's only the second time a compatible system between two countries has been established anywhere in the world.
Prime Minister Mark Brown said the CookSafe+ app is an essential step on the path to two-way quarantine-free travel with New Zealand.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown Photo: Cook Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Immigration
CookSafe+ utilises Bluetooth technology to help make travel between the two countries safer and easier.
Users running the app can automatically share Bluetooth ID codes with users running the New Zealand Covid Tracer app without any extra modifications.
That means people travelling to the Cook Islands will not need to download anything new, and the same is true for Cook Islanders travelling to New Zealand.
Once the app has been downloaded and the user has turned CookSafe+ Bluetooth tracing on, the app sends out a private and secure random ID code.
This code lets the user's phone record how close another CookSafe+ app user is to you and for how long.
If someone tests positive for Covid-19, that user can send an anonymous notification containing all the random IDs their phone has sent out over the past 14 days.
If your phone recognises any of these IDs, and you were close enough for long enough to be at risk of exposure, you will receive an alert.
This alert will advise you on what to do to keep yourself and your family safe.
Like those used by the NZ COVID Tracer app, the Bluetooth ID codes sent out by the CookSafe+ app are randomised and secure.
Data is only shared if a user who tests positive is asked to share it by a contact tracing team member and even then the user still remains anonymous.
