App changes could force more people to self-isolate

THE NHS contact tracing app will force more people into isolation after the algorithm was tweaked, officials have said.

The “risk threshold” that determines if a user is to be alerted and told to selfisolate was lowered yesterday. The Government said t he decision was necessary to tackle rising infection rates by breaking the chains of transmission.

It comes amid growing speculation of a new national lockdown. Yesterday the Government announced 16 new areas would go into Tier 2 and West Yorkshire would go up to Tier 3.

Senior figures have told Boris Johnson it is becoming clear the restrictions do not go far enough and warned that at current infection rates, most of the country would be in maximum restrictions within weeks.

Jonathan Van-tam, the deputy chief medical officer, told ministers the outlook on hospital admissions was now “very, very bleak” and that he was beginning to change his mind about the benefits of local interventions.

The Daily Telegraph understands the Government is considering a Christmas window where families will be able to meet, with lockdowns either side of the festive period.

The Prime Minister has so far refused to impose any new nationwide restriction, despite lockdowns in France, Italy and Germany where infection rates are lower.

The tweak to the NHS app, downloaded by 19 million – about 40 per cent of those with eligible phones – could send many more into de facto lockdown with no ministerial announcement.

Designers used the upgrade to improve its ability to determine proximity between phones. The app uses Bluetooth to understand the distance, over time, between users. If someone tests positive, the app’s risk scoring algorithm uses this data, along with the infectiousness of the individual testing positive, to make calculations about risk, which can be changed to reflect the status of the pandemic. The threshold score has moved from 900 to 120.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “This is expected to increase the number of people asked to self-isolate.”

The DHSC also said a glitch where users were t old t hey had been “exposed” but not instructed to self-isolate had been resolved by the upgrade.

It came as health officials voiced concern that not enough people were coming forward for testing, meaning that the spread of transmission was not being tracked. By Tuesday there were 8,595 Covid patients in hospital in England, up 37 per cent in seven days. Those on ventilators rose by a third to 743.

Areas entering Tier 2 tomorrow are: East Riding of Yorkshire, Hull, North East Lincs, North Lincs, Dudley, Staffs, Telford and the Wrekin, Amber Valley, Bolsover, Derbyshire Dales, Derby, South Derbyshire, and High Peak, Charnwood, Luton and Oxford.

CYPRUS has been put on the red list of quarantine countries, forcing holidaymakers returning to the UK from the island to self-isolate for 14 days.

Half-term holidaymakers from the island have until 4am on Sunday to return to Britain to avoid quarantine after an increase in its Covid-19 rates.

Cyprus, which last year welcomed four million tourists, has seen its Covid19 figures soar to 111.7 cases per 100,000 of the population, well over the normal threshold for the imposition of quarantine. Lithuania was also added to the quarantine red list yesterday.

Germany, which announced a second “soft” lockdown this week, retains its quarantine-free travel corridor with the UK despite widespread speculation that it would be added to the red list with a rate of 107.2 cases per 100,000.

All three countries, however, have lower Covid rates than the UK’S 229.6 cases per 100,000.

Paul Charles, the chief executive of The PC Agency travel consultancy, said: “It doesn’t add up that countries are still being added to the quarantine list when their rates are lower than the UK’S and the Government’s own statistics show virtually no one is bringing Covid into the UK.”

An Office for National Statistics survey this week found the infection rate among those who travelled abroad in the past 30 days was roughly the same as for people who stayed in the UK.

The move will be a major blow for Cyprus whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism. In June, tourism was down more than 90 per cent, forcing the closure of hundreds of hotels and restaurants across the island.

Next week, Boris Johnson will consider proposals to introduce testing for international arrivals from red list countries that could free travellers from quarantine after seven days if they test negative for Covid.

Testing could be in place by Dec 1 under proposals by a taskforce headed by Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, and Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary.