Watch: Dr Ashley Bloomfield demonstrates how to turn on Bluetooth tracing on COVID Tracer app

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has demonstrated how to turn on the Bluetooth function on the COVID Tracer app.

Bluetooth tracing allows you to receive an alert if you have been near another app user who tested positive for COVID-19.

The alert will advise you on what to do to keep yourself and your whānau safe.

"An important point is, this is a specific requirement inside the app - it's not just having Bluetooth turned on your phone," Dr Bloomfield said in a press conference on Wednesday.

If you're on the NZ COVID Tracer app, click on the dashboard.

This is what it will look like when your Bluetooth tracing is off.
This is what it will look like when your Bluetooth tracing is off.
Click on Bluetooth tracing and turn it on so it shows green.
Click on Bluetooth tracing and turn it on so it shows green.

However, it's still just as important to keep scanning QR codes to keep track of where you've been.

"The Bluetooth functionality complements the QR code scanning. Both - as we have seen this case in Northland - are incredibly helpful for us being able to respond - if we do get a case," Dr Bloomfield says.

Scanning QR codes allows health authorities to know where you have visited and whether you may be exposed to the virus.

The Bluetooth function, however, will send you an alert if you have come into contact with a positive case.

But is it a breach of privacy?

The NZ COVID-19 website states Bluetooth tracing anonymously keeps track of who you have been near. 

"When you enable Bluetooth tracing, your privacy is always protected," the website says.

"It cannot share your location, your name or anything else about you.

"This means if you receive an alert because you came into contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19, no one but you knows you have received it."