Breaking news
The NHS Test and Trace smartphone app is being re-launched today with a second round of trials on the Isle of Wight and in the London borough of Newham. England’s beleaguered app, of which the first version had to be scrapped in June, has now been recreated using technology made by Google and Apple. Officials … Read more
Coronavirus tracing app will be launched yet again… and users will be asked to scan in at barcode points in pubs and restaurants Users of app will be asked to scan in at barcode points in pubs and restaurants Pilot schemes will begin on Isle of Wight – where first app was tested and failed … Read more
NHS Test and Trace is now calling for local councils to help with the ailing coronavirus contact tracing system and track down people at risk of being infected. The Government today announced it is slashing its army of call centre contact tracers by a third – from 18,000 to 12,000 – and relying more on … Read more
Ministers today admitted the struggling coronavirus contact tracing system must improve amid fears that reopening schools in September could spark a catastrophic second peak. Local government minister Simon Clarke conceded there is ‘more to do’ after a major study warned a resurgence of the disease could be twice as bad as that in the Spring. … Read more
NHS tracing app will tell users when someone tests positive at their local pub or restaurant New app to have a barcode system where users scan phones in shops and pubs NHS test and trace chair Baroness Harding says app will be available by winter She said it would be very similar to New Zealand’s … Read more
An employee at a call centre hit by a Covid-19 outbreak has recalled how staff would breach social distancing rules, as the government has announced an investigation has been launched. The 19-year-old woman started working at the Sitel call centre at Eurocentral business park near Motherwell in Scotland just days before lockdown and has now … Read more
Contact tracers need to catch 80 per cent of infections and test suspected patients within three days to keep coronavirus epidemics squashed, a study has found. Researchers from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands said the reproduction R rate can be kept under one as long as only two in 10 patients slip under … Read more
Coronavirus contact tracing staff are caught sharing patients’ confidential data on Facebook and Whatsapp Names, NHS numbers, contact details and case IDs of positive cases shared Staff sent the screenshots for each other when asking for help with system Department of Health said there was a system for tracers needing help By Luke Andrews For … Read more
Coronavirus contact tracing apps are not all they’ve cracked up to be and those being used in France and Australia have flopped, experts warn. In France, two million people downloaded the StopCovid app but only 14 people received alerts that they were at risk in three weeks of the app being in operation. Australia faced the … Read more
A contact tracing app is ‘urgent and important’ and will be able to do jobs that human employees can’t, NHS Test and Trace chiefs said today. Speaking to senior politicians they said the UK still plans to roll out an app but could not put a timescale on it. They said ‘our sense is it … Read more