Track and trace: When will a test and trace app be ready in the UK? Latest updates
TRACK AND TRACE systems could be key to ending the coronavirus lockdown in the UK - but when will the track and trace app be available?
Matt Hancock says it is the public's 'duty to help track and trace’
Track and trace attempts in the UK currently amount to a manual only approach headed by Tory peer Dido Harding. The effort has so far traced more than 31,000 contacts, but some people working for the Government's programme have failed to contact anyone. Officials have banked hopes on the practice eventually integrating with an app, making it more effective and accessible.
When will the track and trace app be available in the UK?
Track and trace in its manual form has proven a useful part of helping the UK's infection rate gradually decline.
Tens of thousands of traced contacts have delivered a measure of success, but experts state the practice is yet to reach full optimisation.
Part of helping it develop further was the NHS track and trace app, developed by the NHS' digital frontier NHSX.
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The app was marketed as "world-beating" by Boris Johnson and slated for a June 1 launch, but it is yet to leave its testing phase on the Isle of Wight.
Health Minister Lord Bethell conceded yesterday the app now “isn’t a priority”, following stalled development on the island.
He said the Government was now aiming to roll out the app by winter, with no official date pinned to the release.
But today, the future of the Government app hit another stumbling point.
As the Government continues to fall short of promises, the Department of Health and Social Care said it will abandon its efforts to develop its own coronavirus contact-tracing app.
Instead they will focus on technology from Apple and Google.
The decentralised model could prove more privacy-oriented but may mean epidemiologists can't access the same amount of data.
The country now joins several other European nations to abandon a decentralised approach and use the Google-Apple model.
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Germany, Italy and Denmark have welcomed the model, while France has chosen to stick with centralisation.
Dr Michael Veale from the DP3T group, which favours the decentralised model, said the alternative model is also home-grown in its own way.
He said: "This is a welcome, if a heavily and unnecessarily delayed, move.
"The Google-Apple system in a way is home-grown: originating with research at a large consortium of universities led by Switzerland and including UCL in the UK.
"The UK has no end of options and no reasonable excuse to not get the app out quickly now."
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Officials have used tracing apps to guard against a second wake of coronavirus infections.
Much like the manual approach, they log when people come into contact with someone exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.
If one user receives a COVID-19 diagnosis, the app will alert people they have recently seen.
The app will then urge them to get tested or self-isolate.
