PINGDEMIC CLIMBDOWN
NHS Covid app will be made less sensitive – so fewer people will be contacted and told to isolate
TENS of thousands of Britons will be spared self-isolation after ministers tweaked the NHS app to ease the crippling pingdemic.
In what represents a major climbdown by the Government, people will now be forced to isolate only if they have come into ‘close contact’ with an asymptomatic Covid-19 case in the two days before they test positive.
Previously the app had trawled through a five-day window of an infected person’s contacts to send ‘ping’ alerts.
Although the change to the app is a major move to address the pingdemic, it will apply only in cases where Covid-carriers do not have symptoms – about one third of total infections.
This means hundreds of thousands are still likely to be pinged each week and the self-isolation carnage will continue to wreak havoc until the rules are fully relaxed later this month.
Currently when people are pinged by the app they are advised – but not legally obliged – to selfisolate for ten days.
The decision to update the app follows a campaign by the Daily Mail calling for the pingdemic mayhem to be eased.
It represents another major virus U-turn by the Government, which until now had stubbornly refused to back down over strict isolation rules paralysing the economy.
Last night, however, business leaders warned the move was ‘too little too late’ as they kept up the pressure on the Prime Minister to exempt the fully vaccinated.
Under the current timetable, those with two doses of a Covid jab in England will not be exempt from self-isolation rules until August 16 – despite Scotland and Wales both bringing the date for this change forward to next week.
Yesterday Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the ‘logic’ of the app was being tweaked to reduce the number of people getting pinged.
He said: ‘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.
‘This update to the app will help ensure that we are striking the right balance. It’s so important that people isolate when asked to do so in order to stop the spread of the virus and protect their communities.’
The Government said fewer people will now be pinged overall but the total number of ‘high-risk contacts being advised to self-isolate’
will stay the same. Research shows that asymptomatic people are unlikely to be infectious beyond the two days before they test positive. Some 689,313 people were pinged by the NHS app in the week to July 21. On top of this, 536,338 alerts were issued manually NHS Test & trace.
The sheer numbers have led to devastating staffing shortages across all sectors of the economy, with hospitality chiefs warning one in ten businesses have had to shut down entirely.
Kate Nicholls, chief of UKHospitality, said: ‘This will help to alleviate some of the pressure currently being experienced by hard-hit businesses, but is not a
‘Striking the right balance’
silver bullet. The fact that fully vaccinated staff will still currently have to self-isolate is a significant barrier to venues operating viably and moving towards recovery.’
A spokesman for the Adam Smith Institute, an economics think tank, said: ‘This is exceptionally welcome for firms struggling with employees off.
‘It comes too little and too late though for so many that have lost revenue and taken on debt from reduced service provision and custom due to the app.’
Boris Johnson had previously resisted intense pressure from business leaders and Tory backbenchers to end the pingdemic chaos and insisted the measures must stay until August 16.
Last night the Department of Health claimed that in the first three weeks of July the app averted up to 2,000 cases per day and approximately 1,600 hospital admissions. It said usage remains high, with about 40 per cent of the ‘eligible population’ regularly using the app and about 50 per cent of all reported tests being inputted.
Dr Jenny Harries, CEO of UK Health Security Agency, said: ‘I strongly encourage everyone, even those fully vaccinated, to continue using the app. It is a lifesaving tool that helps us to stay safe and to protect those closest to us as we return to a more familiar way of life.’
Liz Kendall, Labour’s shadow health minister, commenting on news that the NHS Covid app will be tweaked, said: ‘This is yet another Covid U-turn from ministers at a time when the public need clarity and certainty.’