Coronavirus testing and tracing app to start Isle of Wight trial
The UK’s coronavirus testing and tracing mobile app will be trialled in the Isle of Wight next week, with a full rollout expected later this month.
People who download the app will be able to alert other people they have been in contact with that they have coronavirus symptoms.
The person with the symptoms,and anyone who has been alerted will then be able to request a Covid-19 test.
The app is being created by NHSX – the health service’s unit for technology, digital and data – and is considered as a key part of the UK’s strategy to ease social distancing measures over the next few months.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said today that at least half the country needed to download the app for it to work.
Speaking to Sky News today, he said: “That system is going into testing this week on the Isle of Wight and then later in the month that app will be rolled out and deployed, assuming the tests are successful of course, to the population at large.
“The idea is that we will encourage as many people to take this up as possible, this is going to be a huge national effort.
“We need for this to work, 50, 60 percent of people to be using this app.”
Shapps said that people coming into the country will also be urged to download and use the app.
He also stressed that the information provided would remain confidential when asked about privacy concerns.
He said: “It will be completely confidential, the information doesn’t stay on there, you don’t know who the individuals are, but what it would do is alert people if they have been near somebody who later is diagnosed as having coronavirus.”
The app’s rollout will require 18,000 people, including 3,000 health workers and specialists, to build and administer the app.
Health secretary Matt Hancock explained how it would work when announcing it two weeks ago.
He said: “If you become unwell, you will be able to tell the app, the app will then send an alert to other app users that you have been in significant contact with in recent days, even before you had symptoms, so they know and they can act accordingly so we can get tests to people even if they’re asymptomatic.”