Contact registers are vital for road ahead

Pilbara businesses and residents are among those across Western Australia who now have to participate in new mandatory contact registers at selected venues for COVID-19 tracing purposes. The new safety measures came into effect last Saturday at businesses and venues including food and licenced premises, gyms, indoor sporting centres, pools, hairdressers, cinemas and function centres among others. The records involve people aged 16 and over supplying the date, arrival time, name and telephone number, and would only be used for the purpose of COVID-19 contract tracing if required. Businesses and patrons can opt in to use the new SafeWA app for the register or use traditional pen and paper recording methods. Froth Craft Brewery director Pete Firth said while he felt they had moved past the need for contact registers, Froth has both the SafeWA app and a manual record. “It felt like we were over that. Hopefully this won’t have to be in effect for too long and we can go to stage five and everyone can move on with their lives,” he said. Blanche Bar owner Bart Parsons said the new measures might be an issue for the hospitality industry that is already struggling with staff shortages. “You are pretty much almost guaranteed you will need an extra staff member on to ensure that it’s being done right, so you times that across all the other venues in the State that are large, it’s a few more people being taken out of the pool,” he said. Health Minister Roger Cook said while WA remained free of community transmission, there needed to be processes in place in case it is required. “The maintenance of contact registers is a whole-of-community effort and is so vital in the event of an outbreak, where contact tracing is required,” he said.