What is home quarantining and how will the facial recognition app work?

The trials began in South Australia for fully vaccinated adults returning to the state in September. It will be expanded to NSW and Victoria in the coming weeks.

Those in the program will be allowed to serve out their seven to 14 day isolation period at home instead of inside a state-operated hotel quarantine or 'medihotel' facility.

Using an app-based program, the participants will required to provide a selfie when prompted throughout the day.

The app's inbuilt geolocation and facial recognition capabilities will then verify the person's compliance with the stay-at-home orders.

According to Professor Adrian Esterman, epidemiologist at the University of South Australia the software is brand new and has never been trialled elsewhere in the world.

"There has been a little bit of controversy over the privacy requirements, but other countries have trialled other things like wristbands," he said.

"This is a brand new first for Australia and I'm hoping it succeeds."

Victoria is set to rollout its trial of the system from September 30.

Under the new rules, anyone who is double vaxxed and returning from NSW hotspots will have return a negative COVID-19 test before entering the mandatory two-week isolation, which can now be served at home.

In NSW, the trial will run across a control group of 175 people.

The program will also reduce the isolation period from the mandatory 14 days to just seven days, and as well as the app-based check-in, will include random in-person police checks.

Following the release of the Delta strain from NSW hotel quarantine facilities in June, Professor Esterman said he is hopeful the new system will increase community safety.

"We know how dangerous medihotels can be, not just that there are leaks but because we know that people often get the virus by going [into hotel quarantine]," he said.

"So this is a much, much better system."