PINGING IT!
As Freedom Day looms, thousands ditch NHS app after half a million people told to isolate in a week
MINISTERS are begging millions of people not to delete the NHS Covid app as Freedom Day approaches after it ‘pinged’ a record 520,000 in a single week and told them to isolate.
Fears are growing that factories and offices risk grinding to a halt as staff are ordered home – even though the country is meant to open up from Monday.
Although 26million people have downloaded the app, a fifth have already deleted it – including a third of younger people aged 18 to 24. And another third plan to ditch it after Monday to avoid being pinged following contact with someone who tested positive, a Savanta ComRes poll found.
Less data would affect the government’s ability to check the effect of the lift and housing secretary Robert Jenrick insisted yesterday: ‘It is important that we have the app, that we take it seriously, that when we do get those
messages we act accordingly. But we’re going to give further thought to how we ensure it’s a proportionate response.’
Staff absences are biting across the country after the 46 per cent jump in alerts. In Leeds, Bristol, Rochdale and Liverpool bin collections were scaled back with one in four collectors at home.
‘Our refuse team is severely depleted, and our programme is not sustainable,’ said Abdul Qadir, of Liverpool council.
In Sunderland, more than 600 workers at Nissan have been ordered home.
Supermarkets have warned of empty shelves as delivery staff isolate.
‘It is not an exaggeration to say factories are on the verge of shutting and, at some sites, hundreds of staff are off work,’ said Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner.
‘Something has to be done in time for July 19, or people will start deleting the app en masse to avoid isolation notices.’
Double-jabbed office worker Deborah Lee, 37, was furious after being forced to self-isolate for a week when a case was detected at her London workplace – she had no symptoms and tested negative. ‘It disrupted my life for no good reason and I felt I was punished for being safe,’ she said. ‘I had to cancel plans to watch the Euros in the pub, see my parents, go to the gym.’
Downing Street sources have suggested the app will be ‘tweaked’ to make it less sensitive – but medics warned that could fuel a third wave.
‘Changing sensitivity will miss opportunities to reduce transmission,’ said Prof Claire Horwell, of Durham university. ‘If the app is picking up so many contacts, it’s because cases are out of control. This is so wrong.’
Another 48,553 people tested positive for Covid yesterday – up a third in two days – as deaths hit 63, the highest total since March 26.
Ministers admit 100,000 people a day could be testing positive next month after social distancing rules ease.
But they have been accused of creating a ‘recipe for chaos’ by scrapping laws yet urging firms to make people wear masks in shops, restaurants and offices, and telling pubs to stick to table service. ‘Businesses have been awaiting Freedom Day with bated breath,’ said Roger Barker of the Institute of Directors. ‘But instead we have had a series of mixed messages.’ Prime minister Boris Johnson has said double-jabbed NHS staff will soon not need to self-isolate if they get pinged, but has yet to say when.
And his government has promised people who have had both doses can ignore a ping after August 16, but has been urged to bring that date forward.
Last week, his spokesman urged people to stick with the app, saying: ‘He has been clear that he continues to use it and we continue to ask people to isolate if it asks them to.’