NHS Covid app tweaked to reduce number of people self-isolating
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The NHS Covid-19 app for England and Wales has been tweaked to reduce the number of people required to self-isolate, the health department announced on Monday following weeks of disruption and staff shortages caused by the “pingdemic”.
Currently, if an asymptomatic individual reports a positive coronavirus test, the app contacts anyone who has been in close contact with the person in the five days before the test result is reported.
The new update, which will come into effect on Monday, will mean that the app will only look for close contacts for the two days prior to a positive test result being reported.
Health secretary Sajid Javid argued that the app’s modifications struck the “right balance”. “We want to reduce the disruption that self-isolation can cause for people and businesses, while ensuring we’re protecting those most at risk from this virus,” he said.
The Department of Health and Social Care said that while the “logic” of the app, which determines how close contacts are notified, will be changed, its sensitivity and risk threshold would remain the same.
According to an analysis by scientists at Oxford university, in the first three weeks of July, usage of the app prevented more than 50,000 Covid-19 infections and reduced the spread of coronavirus by about 4.3 per cent each week.
Amid reports that people are deleting the app to avoid being contacted, health leaders have urged the public to continue to use it. Estimates from the department show that just 40 per cent of the eligible population are regularly using it.
“I strongly encourage everyone, even those fully vaccinated, to continue using the app”, said Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency. “The app is the simplest, easiest, and fastest way to find out whether you have been exposed to the virus, and it has saved thousands of lives over the course of this pandemic.”
Liz Kendall, the shadow health minister, said: “The government has allowed infections to spiral out of control, leaving hundreds of thousands of people forced to self isolate every day. Their response is not to drive down infections but, instead, to quietly change the app that helps to keep us safe. This is yet another Covid U-turn from ministers . . . It’s shambolic and they must get a grip.”
Monday’s announcement follows growing concern among businesses on the impact of staff shortages. According to the latest NHS figures, 689,313 alerts were sent to users of the app between July 15 and July 21. Those identified as a close contact of a positive case are advised to self-isolate for 10 days.
Earlier this month, the government announced that workers in certain critical industries, including those in the food and transport sectors, would be able to undergo daily testing instead of having to self-isolate. An additional 2,000 testing sites would also be introduced across England, designed specifically for these eligible key workers.
However, industry leaders within some excluded sectors, including hospitality, have warned staff shortages are continuing to wreck havoc. Recent data from UKHospitality, a trade body, has indicated that about 267,000 employees within the sector in England were either currently self-isolating or had recently been told to self-isolate.
From August 16, residents in England who are fully vaccinated and over the age of 18 will no longer be required to self-isolate if in contact with an infected person and instead will be advised to take a PCR test. In Wales, this date has been brought forward to August 7.