Half don’t know the symptoms
HALF of all British adults still do not recognise Covid-19 symptoms – and many refuse to use the Government test-andtrace app if they have the virus.
It means the number of people using the “test, trace and isolate” system is much lower than expected, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
Just one in five people would request a test kit if they displayed symptoms – a cough, fever or loss of taste and smell.
And more than 40 per cent would not fully self-isolate if they had symptoms.
Those most likely to drop the ball include younger men, key workers, those with children or people who struggle financially.
Without an effective system to identify people with symptoms, beating the virus will prove difficult, the researchers said.
Dr Louise Smith from King’s College London said: “With low rates for symptom recognition, testing and full self-isolation, the effectiveness of the UK’s current test, trace and isolate system is limited.”
More than 53,000 people over the age of 16 in the UK were quizzed in the first 11 months of the pandemic. Just half were able to identify the main coronavirus symptoms.
Around 70 per cent said they would self-isolate at the start of the study. But in recent polls, just 53 per cent were willing not to leave home in the first 10 days.
And while 62 per cent of people said they would request a test if they developed symptoms, just 18 per cent had done so, increasing to 22 per cent by 2021.