Australia's white elephant COVIDSafe app HASN'T been updated to help in the fight against horror new Delta strain - and it's costing taxpayers $100,000 a week to operate Government COVIDSafe app has not been updated to detect new Delta variant Medical, tech experts and bureaucrats can't agree on the app upgrade The COVIDSafe app is a reported failure with little uptake on the download 6.5 million dollars of tax-payers money has so far been spent on the tracing app By Catherine Potter For Daily Mail Australia Published: 08:03 BST, 1 July 2021 | Updated: 08:03 BST, 1 July 2021 Viewcomments Australia's COVIDSafe app has not been updated to track the highly infectious Delta variant rendering the $6.5 million technology 'useless'. The government app was created for state and territory public health officials to contact trace users who had been near a Covid-19 infected person within 15 minutes window. Despite the emergence of the highly-contagious and reportedly deadly Delta variant, which can be transmitted 'fleetingly', the parameters of the COVIDSafe app have not been updated. The completely voluntary app has created controversy since its introduction, widely reported to be an ongoing failure due to little uptake on the download. Conflict between government, health and tech experts on a decision to upgrade the government's COVIDSafe tracing app has erupted due to the deadly new Delta variant The COVIDSafe app has been deemed a disaster due to the lack of uptake from the Australian community Ongoing monthly costs for the COVIDSafe app are estimated to be a whopping $100,000 with the decision of whether to upgrade meaning even more taxpayer money could go down the drain. The government is contracted for work with the app worth nearly $10 million until the end of 2021. There are also reports the app had not been used to detected any new close contacts since November, 2020. Mary-Louise McLaws, a leading epidemiologist and adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO), described the app's current status as 'very useless' in detecting the Delta variant with its outdated time-frame configuration. 'It's pretty clear that with the Delta variant the proportion of transmission that happens that is aerosol is higher,' she told the ABC. 'You just have to walk past someone.' Ongoing monthly costs for the failed COVIDSafe app are estimated to be a whopping $100,000 Randall Brugeaud who created the app has defended the COVIDSafe app's relevance and ability to be modified, describing it as 'highly configurable' The Victorian Government confirmed they did access and utilise data from the app, however admitted the information did not prove vital to contact tracing. 'The Department's public health team reviews data from the COVIDSafe app if it is available,' a Department of Health spokesperson said. 'In the past three months, the COVIDSafe app has not identified any close contacts in Victoria that weren't already discovered through interviews and other records'. Digital Transformation Agency CEO Randall Brugeaud, who is in charge of operating the app, defended its relevance and ability to be modified, describing it as 'highly configurable'. 'If, for example, it was decided that 15 minutes was too long and we set it to 10 minutes or that 1.5 metres was too far away and we set it to one metres, we're able to adjust the filtering for the contact tracers,'. Read more: Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility