Over 3 million people have downloaded LeaveHomeSafe tracing app

More than half of Hong Kong's population has downloaded the government's contact tracing app LeaveHomeSafe, according to Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang.

Previously, the public questioned whether the authorities have made up the number of downloads of the app. Some netizens found that not only the app ranked first in the health category in Hong Kong's app store and play store, it also ranked first in countries such as the Bahamas, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.

The IT secretary said over 97 percent of the downloads, with latest figures totaling 3.77 million, came from Hong Kong. He said it was not surprising to see that some of the downloads were from overseas, as many Hongkongers work or study abroad.

Launched last November, the LeaveHomeSafe app aims to help the authorities combat the pandemic by recording users' whereabouts. After scanning a QR code upon entering a venue, the app informs users if a Covid-19 infection is later linked to the same place and time a user was there.

Starting from February 18, restaurants and other venues such as cinemas, beauty parlors and gyms were required to register customers' personal information or ask them to scan the LeaveHomeSafe QR code as a preconditions for business resumption.

Sit said since February, around 19,000 people who have received notifications from the tracing app got tested at community testing centers. So far, over 83,000 venues have posted a QR code for the app.

Upon the launch of the tracing app, many feared that their whereabouts would be tracked by the authorities. A sharp increase in demand for cheap burner phones was seen at electronic shops after the app was made mandatory in February.

The minister reiterated that users' privacy would be protected, with data only recorded on their mobile phones -- not on any government server. He added that using the tracing app would be much more convenient than leaving personal information.