COVID-19: U.K. Government Unveils NHS Contact-Tracing Phone App As Next Step In Fighting Disease.
The battle against COVID-19 is about to enter the next step in the United Kingdom. Each day, the British Government holds a press conference to reveal the latest statistics and outline policy.
Today, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, announced:
“Today I wanted to outline the next step: a new NHS app for contact tracing. If you become unwell with the symptoms of coronavirus, you can securely tell this new NHS app and the app will then send an alert anonymously to other app users that you’ve been in significant contact with over the past few days, even before you had symptoms, so that they know and can act accordingly.”
Contact tracing is not new and other countries have used it successfully. It means that if people are told to self-isolate immediately after coming into contact with COVID-19, then it means they could avoid passing on the pathogen even if they appear to be symptom-free.
But, unsurprisingly, concerns have been raised about privacy, as the app seems to track people and their movements in some detail.
The National Health Service, Britain’s public health system, is dearly prized by the British people, providing world-class care, free to all at the point of care. Its importance just now cannot be underestimated.
NHSX, the technological branch of the NHS, has been working on the software alongside Apple and Google, for this app which uses Bluetooth technology. Experts in clinical safety and digital ethics are also involved, Hancock said. Along with privacy issues, there’s the question of whether it will actually work. ‘The more people who get involved then the better informed our response to coronavirus will be and the better we can protect the NHS,” Hancock explained.
ethical and security standards and only used for NHS care and research, and we won’t hold it any longer than it’s needed. And as part of our commitment to transparency we’ll be publishing the source code, too. We’re already testing this app and as we do this we’re working closely with the world’s leading tech companies and renowned experts in digital safety and ethics.”
The announcement came on the day that the U.K. total of deaths from Coronavirus passed 10,000, reaching 10.585, with 78,991 cases recorded. One of that number, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left hospital today after several nights in intensive care. Among those who have died, was Tim Brooke-Taylor, it was announced today. Brooke-Taylor, known to millions in Britain as one of The Goodies, a surreal and hilarious comedy show that rivaled Monty Python, was a brilliant and gifted writer and performer. His trademark affability and good-natured lunacy was evident in his work to the end (he was still appearing in the brilliant anarchic “antidote to panel games”, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, just weeks ago). He is among the latest people to lose his fight with Coronavirus.
The app, which should be available to download within weeks, is another weapon in the fight against COVID-19 and could potentially speed an end to the lockdown operating across the U.K.
Fellow Forbes contributor Zak Doffman discusses some of the other technological concerns here.