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The NHS is developing an app to tell you if you've been in contact with someone with coronavirus

PA
PA

The NHS is working to develop a contact-tracing app that alerts people if they have been close to someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, and warn them to self-isolate.

Suggested by scientists, it is hoped such technology could significantly slow the rate of transmission and help countries to emerge from lockdowns safely.

The app, developed by NHSX - a new unit driving forward the digital transformation of health and social care - along with industry partners is thought to be weeks away from being ready.

A study by the University of Oxford's Big Data Institute and Nuffield Department of Population Health published in the journal Science proposes an app that uses Bluetooth to keep a log of all other app users a person has been in close proximity with over a few days.

(REUTERS)
(REUTERS)

When an individual tests positive for Covid-19, the app can then be used to notify anyone who has been near them anonymously and advise them to go home and self-isolate as a precaution against the further spread.

Professor Christophe Fraser, from Oxford University's Big Data Institute, said: “We need a mobile contact tracing app to urgently support health services to control coronavirus transmission, target interventions and keep people safe.”

It is thought that transmissions of the coronavirus occur in the early phase of the infection before you show any symptoms, which means the virus is always one step ahead.

However, scientists behind the project say any such app should be opt-in and provide secure data storage and privacy protection, while also requiring a substantial number of people to sign up.

The app wouldn't track or access your location data, but could instead follow the users' proximity to each other through Bluetooth functions.

Once symptoms are reported, or they test positive for the virus, the app would be able to chart back through people you were in close contact with over the past seven days.

If you were one of these people, you would be alerted by the app and be told to self-isolate.

The development would follow the lead set by Singapore, which has used the app TraceTogether in its bid to stop the spread of the virus there. The app gives people a red or green code determining whether they need to self-isolate.

Professor Keith Neal of the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, University of Nottingham, said: ”This is a theoretical modelling paper. It does not provide any direct evidence as such that mobile apps could control epidemics without the need for quarantines.

“But it is important in getting the UK to debate what has already been done elsewhere.

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