Osaka Prefecture said Friday it was considering implementing changes to its COVID-19 contact-tracing system in coming months so that more infected people would be able to use it to report their infection status, curbing the spread of the disease.

The Osaka COVID-19 Tracing System was launched on May 29 last year, soon after the full lifting of the nation's first state of emergency. But during its seven months of operations, the system issued alert messages to registered users only six times in December.

The system allows owners and managers of Osaka restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other facilities to sign up and track novel coronavirus infections.