Scaled-back version of delayed app revealed

Basic application expected to be launched today will tell people about cases in an area and their own risk

A BASIC version of the much-delayed NHS coronavirus app is expected to be launched today, days after health officials laid off thousands of contact tracers.

The scaled-back model is expected to tell people about infection levels in their area, work out their own risk and book a Covid test. The functions mean people could be alerted if they were likely to have been in contact with more people than usual, meaning they were at increased risk.

However, the original purpose of the app – to contact people to let them know they had been in close contact with a person with Covid – is yet to be rolled out. Pilots are expected to start again, after being abandoned in the Isle of Wight earlier this year.

For months, the NHS promised to produce such a function, but in June officials admitted the plans were not working and instead pledged to work with Apple and Google.

These aspects of the model will need to be piloted before being added to the national app. Under the new plans, people will also be able to book Covid tests through the app and use it to scan Quick Response codes at pubs and restaurants so patrons can be alerted if other customers test positive.

Users may be able to enter personal information about themselves to see their own risk score, taking into ac- count both the infection rate in their own area, and their own vulnerability should they get the virus, because of their age, weight or underlying health conditions.

Officials believe such advice might help people to comply with social distancing guidance. Earlier this week health officials announced that the national “Test and Trace” scheme will be scaled back, under plans to replace thousands of call centre workers with council staff knocking on doors.

The major overhaul of the system follows warnings that the service is now reaching fewer than half of contacts of those who test positive for Covid. On average, those working for the call centres are reaching just one case a month, research showed.

Mass testing and tracing was abandoned in March, and not restarted until the end of May, with the roll-out of NHS Test and Trace.

Yesterday Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, criticised the Government for stopping efforts to isolate and trace Covid cases. He told MPS: “Test and Trace should have been in place three months before it was.”

He said the NHS Test and Trace system in England was not “fit for purpose, let alone world class”. Mr Hopson added there was an “awful lot” to do to get the service in place for winter. And he said research to be published by the body later this week would show NHS leaders “are not particularly confident” about the system so far.

Councils have warned that many of those being called reject attempts to contact them, because they assume that the unfamiliar “0300” number is a cold caller.

The changes also follow warnings that the safe reopening of schools depends on improvements in efforts to test and track the virus. The national service will be reduced from 18,000 to 12,000 contact tracers, amid concern that in recent months thousands of outsourced workers employed by Serco and Sitel have been sitting idle.