Snapper’s Contribution to the Fight Against COVID-19

Snapper has partnered with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to improve contact tracing efficiency with the goal of contributing to the overall health and safety of New Zealand residents and visitors.

Stopping the spread

With public transport being a key risk area in the spread of COVID-19, effective contact tracing on public transport is incredibly important. QR code scanning is a great way to help our contact tracers and keep ourselves and each other safe, but Snapper and MoH wanted to investigate how we could help our contact tracing to be even more robust. With 82% of Wellington bus passengers using Snapper cards and 68% of cards registered, we felt the Snapper community could make a huge difference.

How does it work?

If contact tracing finds that a Wellington bus becomes a location of interest, an automated process kicks off to begin Snapper’s contact tracing process.

We review the trip and identify any other Snapper cards that were also used on the bus. A headcount of all passengers is passed on to MoH as well as – where requested by contact tracing under the Health Act – the contact details of all registered cards.

For privacy purposes, only critical information (your name, contact phone number or email) is passed on to contact tracers where they have identified individuals at risk of exposure to COVID-19. This is strictly according to Health Act requirements. We do not pass on any of your travel history or any other details. For more information, you can review our privacy policy (LINK). Your information will be kept completely confidential unless an exposure occurs, in which case, contact tracers will contact you directly.

Should you wish to opt-out of this service you can do so by contacting Snapper support to de-register your card.

Why is this process important?

Our automatic process ensures vulnerable groups who may not engage with QR codes are more readily protected, e.g., passengers without smartphones or those who are visually impaired or suffer a motor disability.

It also ensures contact tracing can electronically notify Snapper regarding locations of interest and Snapper can automatically communicate the details of matching Snapper card users back to contact tracing. This increases the speed of getting the necessary information to contact tracing for them to follow up on.

Snapper’s integrated contact tracing solution actively contributes to stopping COVID-19 spread by forming part of New Zealand’s layered defence.

How can you help?

By registering your card, contact tracers can be in direct contact with you if you were at risk based on your specific tag on and tag off time stamps.

The faster and more effectively we can help contact tracers identify any close contacts the faster we can mitigate the risk of further exposure.

What if I’m not registered?

Register! There are many benefits to having your Snapper card registered, including peace of mind both if your card is lost and in a potential COVID-19 exposure event.If you’re not registered and are concerned about potential exposure, you can always register your card in the window between a case being announced, and contact tracing commencing.