Australians rush to download coronavirus tracing app, PM Scott Morrison's popularity soars

SYDNEY (REUTERS) - More than a million Australians rushed to download an app designed to help medical workers and state governments trace close contacts of Covid-19 patients, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison's approval rating soared on his pandemic response.

Australia has been one of the most successful countries in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, recording just 83 deaths and 6,700 cases, due to border closures, movement restrictions and a stay-at-home policy. It has lowered its infection rate to currently around 1 per cent from 25 per cent in March.

Australia has indicated it might lift some of the social distancing restrictions starting May 11. Morrison has said at least 40 per cent of the population will need download the app, which allows health authorities to trace users' movements.

Despite privacy concerns, Health Minister Greg Hunt said 1.89 million Australians downloaded the tracing app CovidSafe as of 4pm local time on Monday (April 27), more than 7 per cent of the country's population.

The near 2 million downloads came within 16 hours of the app's launch.

"This effort will help protect ourselves, our families, our nurses and our doctors," Hunt tweeted.

Morrison has said at least 40 per cent of the country's 25.7 million population will need to download the app.

Australia's chief medical officer, Dr Brendan Murphy, said the downloads would help contain the spread of the virus.

Canberra will soon begin testing people regardless of symptoms, he said, adding that it would focus on young adults.

The surge in downloads come as a Newspoll conducted for The Australian newspaper showed Morrison enjoyed the best approval rating for a leader since end-2008.

Morrison's approval rating has skyrocketed 27 points since the first week of March to 68 per cent, the poll showed.

The result was boosted as Morrison jettisoned much of his conservative government's ideology to pledge spending worth more than 10 per cent of GDP, including a A$130 billion (S$119 billion) subsidy to employers to keep staff they might otherwise have let go.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans estimates that without the subsidy unemployment would have soared to 17 per cent by the end of June, but would now only reach 9 per cent.

Business groups in the country have begun lobbying for easing pandemic-related restrictions.

A modelling by the Business Council of Australia on Monday showed the A$2 trillion economy could take a A$400 billion hit if restrictions adopted to fight the spread of Covid-19 continued for six months.

Last week, the head of Australia's central bank said the country would suffer its biggest economic contraction since the 1930s in the first half of this year due to the containment measures.

He estimated national output would fall by around 10 per cent in the first half of 2020 with unemployment almost doubling to around 10% by June.

Despite the economic pain, Australia reported just five new cases of coronavirus across the country in the last 24 hours.

Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, said it had found just two cases in that time, and neither involved community transmission.

The states of Queensland and Western Australia have said they would ease some restrictions this week, as both have had new cases in the low single digits in recent days.

Western Australia will allow indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people, while Queensland has allowed picnics, retail shopping and drives of up to 50km from home. Queensland has also opened its national parks.

The most populous states of Victoria and New South Wales, which have the country's coronavirus hotspots, are maintaining strict social and business restrictions.