By NHS Covid app to be made less sensitive after 60% rise in ‘pings’.
The sensitivity of the NHS Covid-19 tracing app is to be reduced after the number of people “pinged” rose more than 60 per cent in a week. Ministers fear that users will delete the app to avoid being advised to self-isolate.
Under current rules, those who receive an alert are asked to stay at home for up to 10 days.
The hospitality industry and NHS trusts have warned MPs that the knock-on effect for the economy and workplaces could be huge, as it could lead to millions being asked to self-isolate this summer.
Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “We will make sure the app is constantly reviewed so it’s appropriate for the period of time we’re living through, particularly as we’re getting to a majority of adults having been double-vaccinated.”
But he said the app was still “very important as one of the tools in our armoury”. He said there were still large numbers of people downloading it and said he had not seen any data showing people were deleting it.
“It’s in our interests as a society to carry on doing the things that protect each other,” he added.
(Parliamentlive.tv) Grant Shapps
More than 85,000 people a day are getting told to isolate by the NHS, latest figures show.
Some 356,036 app alerts instructing people to isolate were sent out in the week ending June 30, according to NHS data – the highest weekly figure since the data was first published in January.
On top of this, another 241,499 were contacted via phone by official ‘contact tracers’ working for NHS Test and Trace.
The increasing figures suggest half a million people a day could be getting told to isolate by Freedom Day on July 19, when daily infections are likely to top 100,000.
