The Government today said that the visit records of COVID-19 patients uploaded from the LeaveHomeSafe mobile app can assist relevant departments in tracing virus transmission chains in the community.

Responding to questions from a lawmaker at the Legislative Council meeting today, Secretary for Innovation & Technology Alfred Sit explained that the LeaveHomeSafe mobile app is not designed for tracing purpose.

Nevertheless, the Centre for Health Protection is empowered to require COVID-19 patients to upload their visit records to the Department of Health's central database to assist in conducting epidemiological investigations, tracing the paths along which the virus spreads and identifying high-risk individuals in order to cut the transmission chains in the community as early as possible.

By checking the patients' visit records, the centre can also send notifications of exposure risk and compulsory testing notices through the LeaveHomeSafe app to users who have visited the same venue that a patient has visited at about the same time, requiring them to undergo compulsory testing as stipulated by the notice.

Mr Sit noted that the app has so far issued notifications of over 10,250 venues with infection risks to the public.

More than 320,000 people have undergone testing after receiving those notifications, he added.