England’s contact tracing system will be launched on Thursday, the government has announced.
A team of 25,000 contact tracers will track down people who have been near someone infected with coronavirus, and ask them to self-isolate for up to 14 days.
The track and trace system means national lockdowns can be replaced by ”individual isolation and, if necessary, local action where there are outbreaks”, Health Secretary Matt Hancock says.
What will contact tracing look like in England?
Anyone in England who tests positive for coronavirus will be contacted via text, email or over the phone and asked to log on to the NHS Test and Trace website. Parents or guardian will have to give permission for a call to an under-18 to continue.
The tracers can track down the contacts of 10,000 people every day, the government says.
This could include household members, but extends to anyone they have been within 2m (6ft) of for more than 15 minutes.
These close contacts will be told to stay at home for up to 14 days, even if they do not have symptoms, to stop them from unknowingly spreading the virus.
While these contacts will have to quarantine, unless they also develop symptoms the rest of their household will not have to self-isolate alongside them.
Northern Ireland has its own version up and running, Scotland has announced its own system will start on Thursday and Wales’s system is due to start in early June.
How does contact tracing work?
Contact tracing is a system used to slow the spread of infectious diseases like coronavirus. It has already been used in places like Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany.
It usually involves asking coronavirus patients to list all the people with whom they’ve recently been in prolonged contact.
Those people will then be tracked down and potentially asked to self-isolate.
This is sometimes complemented by a location-tracking mobile app, which monitors when users come into contact with each other.
The advantage of an app is it can identify people the patient may not know – like fellow passengers on a bus.
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When will the contact tracing app be ready?
Eventually the government hopes a free NHS smartphone app will work in tandem with manual tracing. Everyone with a smartphone will be asked to download it.
It was originally due to be rolled out nationwide in mid-May, but the government now says it will be ready ”in the coming weeks”.
Once downloaded, it will run in the background of your phone, provided Bluetooth is switched on.
If a user develops coronavirus symptoms, it is up to them to let the app inform the NHS.
That message may trigger an anonymous alert to other users with whom they recently had significant contact, potentially asking them to go into quarantine or be tested.
Has the Isle of Wight app trial been successful?
A trial of the tracing app has taken place on the Isle of Wight.
Mr Hancock says the elderly population on the island – and lower number of smartphone users – made it a useful place to study the spread of a virus.
Relatively restricted travel to the island was also a factor.
As of 14 May, just over half of the island’s 140,000 residents had downloaded the app.
However, security flaws have been flagged in the app. Researchers say these pose risks to users’ privacy, and could be used to prevent alerts being sent.
How have other countries used contact tracing?
Contact tracing has been credited with helping to lift restrictions in other places:
- South Korea has monitored credit card transactions, CCTV footage and mobile phone locations
- Singapore has used police investigations and detective work to piece together where people have been
- Norway has seen only one in five people actively use its contact tracing app. Privacy concerns were raised, with users’ data stored on a central database
- Austria was the first country to roll out a decentralised app. Operated by the Red Cross, users have the option of manually controlling when matches take place
- Iceland saw 40% of the population download its app – one of the highest rates anywhere – but says manual tracing has proved just as important
Source: BBC
