Government u-turn on tracing app technology

THE UK Government is abandoning efforts to develop its own coronavirus contact-tracing app in order to focus on technology from Apple and Google.

In a major U-turn, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said yesterday that efforts would be targeted on developing a programme to support the NHS Test and Trace service based on the tech giants’ model.

But no date was being set for the roll-out, despite England’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock having previously said the app would be available in mid-May.

Officials said the Government’s app, which was being trialled on the Isle of Wight, was highly inaccurate when used on iPhones, only identifying around 4% of contacts.

They said they hoped to feed their research into the AppleGoogle project, suggesting that the trialled app is superior when dealing with distances between individuals.

Baroness Harding, the executive chair of NHS Test and Trace, and Matthew Gould, the chief executive of the NHSX technology wing of the health service, said there had been “specific technical challenges”.

“Our response to this virus has and will continue to be as part of an international effort,” they said in a joint statement.

“That is why as part of a collaborative approach we have agreed to share our own innovative work on estimating distance between app users with Google and Apple, work that we hope will benefit others, while using their solution to address some of the specific technical challenges identified through our rigorous testing.”

Mr Hancock said ministers “remain determined to continue in our ambition” to develop an app that “meets the technical, security and user needs of the public”.

“Countries across the globe have faced challenges in developing an app which gets all of these elements right, but through ongoing international collaboration we hope to learn, improve and find a solution which will strengthen our global response to this virus,” he added.

The tech giants’ design enables more of people’s data to be kept private, which means the Government would have less access to figures on where coronavirus outbreaks are occurring.

But the DHSC said an app would “bring together the functionality required to carry out contact tracing” while enabling people to order tests and access advice.

ONLY one of Wales’ 17 field hospitals set up to offer additional bed capacity during the coronavirus crisis has treated any patients.

Despite the hospitals costing the Welsh Government £166m in total, the Dragon’s Heart Hospital based at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff is the only one to have been used.

It took eight weeks to build the temporary field hospitals across the country and double normal NHS capacity by around 6,000 beds.

The Vale Resort in Hensol, Swansea Bay Studios and Venue Cymru in Llandudno were all transformed into hospitals by their respective health boards.

But the majority of that extra capacity has not needed to be used, as existing hospitals have managed to cope with demand.

Speaking at his weekly press conference from Cathays Park yesterday, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said it was “a good news story” that Wales has not needed to make use of