ServiceWA confusion leaves CRC’s overwhelmed Statewide but new vaccine passport trend emerges in Harvey

In an answer to mounting pressure on resource centres and residents’ confusion over the ServiceWA app a new vaccine-passport trend is being used by more than 200 Harvey residents. Community Resource Centres Statewide have been flooded with people needing assistance with the “fiddly” new ServiceWA app, but some organisations in Harvey have come up with a solution to the problem. Harvey’s CRC and pharmacy have begun to print wallet-sized vaccination passports for residents within the town, with more than 200 residents jumping on the new trend. Assisting up to 40 people a week when the app first released on January 11, Harvey CRC manager Tracey-Anne Davis said the centre had started to organise dedicated appointments because the influx of people was “just too much”. “For the first two-weeks we just didn’t have enough, people were coming in so fast, we started to have issues with some phones connecting, particularly with the MyGovID app,” she said. “In the end we had to start making appointments because it was just too much.” “When Harvey Pharmacy started printing them out it was a godsend, people don’t have to stress so much, we would send people to get their certificate and then come back when they have it, so we can put the app on their phone.” Ms Davis said residents, particularly seniors, coming into the resource centre were “scared” of the outcome if they didn’t set-up the app immediately. “It started off with, mostly, seniors coming in, 70 to 80 years old, in a panic because they didn’t use their phone and they didn’t know what to do, they didn’t know how to put (the app) on,” she said. “People who find it inconvenient to carry their phone around because of work are also getting them, or sometimes they just want to keep it in their car so if they forget it they have a spare one in their car.” An amalgamation of proof of vaccination, SafeWA and G2G Passes used for interstate travel, the ServiceWA app was labelled “fiddly” by Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson and “clunky” and “hard to navigate” by one South West MP due to it’s timely set-up process. A survey conducted by Linkwest — a not-for-profit peak body for Neighbourhood and Community Resource Centres in WA — found that 100 per cent of about 140 centres across the State have been asked for assistance with the app by locals. The survey found the 38 CRC’s involved, mostly located in the South West, had seen an “overwhelming” demand for help which had “flooded” staff. Linkwest chief executive Jane Chilcott said the demand for assistance with the ServiceWA app had been so great CRCs have had to postpone other services or delay essential administrative tasks. “A conservative estimate of the number of support hours provided across our centres during the last two weeks of January has amounted to over 4200 hours,” she said. The app is not compulsory but unvaccinated people who sneak into venues or use a friend’s phone can face on-the-spot fines of $1000 and a fine of $50,000 for fraudulently breaching an Emergency Management Act direction.