Health secretary Matt Hancock self-isolating after NHS app alert
![](https://www.cityam.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/UK-Health-Secretary-Holds-Government-Press-Conference-On-Vaccine-Progress-1230535613.jpg?w=742)
Matt Hancock is self-isolating after receiving an alert from the NHS coronavirus contact tracing app.
The health secretary today said he had been “pinged” by the app and would not be leaving his house until Sunday.
“This self-isolating is perhaps the most important part of all the social distancing,” he said in a video posted on social media.
“This is how we break the chains of transmission,” he added.
“I’ve got to work from home for the next six days and together, by doing this, by following this and all the other panoply of rules that we’ve had to put in place, we can get through this and beat this virus.”
It comes a day after Hancock led a government coronavirus briefing in Downing Street.
New figures published this morning revealed that at least one in eight people in England had contracted the virus by December.
The data, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed how many people tested positive for antibodies, which suggests previous infection.