Centre for International Health co-director Prof Philip Hill said people were looking at Phase 3 of the Omicron response and drawing understandable conclusions from that.
"But we have to think about what life should look like on the other side of the peak of Omicron," Prof Hill said.
"Is stopping and starting easier than continuing for the few weeks of high numbers of cases?"
Under Phase 3 - in place while there is a high number of Covid-19 cases - only those cases and household contacts need to isolate.
However, cases are asked to provide information online about their movements.
The Ministry of Health’s contact-tracing team is focused on following up with people potentially exposed to Covid-19 at high-risk locations, such as hospitals.
Prof Hill said rapid case contact management had been tremendously effective against Covid-19, including in helping delay the rapid rise in cases of the Omicron variant.
"Scanning has become part of the toolkit for rapid case contact management in pandemics.
"It is important that we continue to upskill in the integration of digital tools into our public health practice."
Prof Hill had previously supervised a study, which found more than 90% of Dunedin people were not regularly using the Covid-19 scanning app before the Alert Level 4 lockdown last year.
Scanning had since picked up, after it became mandatory to scan or sign in manually at many business sites.
The number of scans was between 1.4 million and 1.5 million on Saturday and Sunday, when the daily rate had been running about or above 2 million last week. It was near 1.9 million the previous weekend.
The Ministry of Health continues to encourage everyone to keep track of where they have been by scanning in.
"While only household close contacts need to isolate at Phase 3, it is helpful to be aware that you’ve been exposed to someone with Covid-19, especially if you are vulnerable to severe Covid-19 illness, or have contact with people vulnerable to severe Covid-19 illness," a ministry spokesman said.
