Coronavirus contact tracing apps are not all they’ve cracked up to be and those being used in France and Australia have flopped, experts warn. In France, two million people downloaded the StopCovid app but only 14 people received alerts that they were at risk in three weeks of the app being in operation. Australia faced the … Read more
A contact tracing app is ‘urgent and important’ and will be able to do jobs that human employees can’t, NHS Test and Trace chiefs said today. Speaking to senior politicians they said the UK still plans to roll out an app but could not put a timescale on it. They said ‘our sense is it … Read more
The NHS is considering branding Britain’s coronavirus contact tracing app ‘PPE in your pocket’ when it eventually launches. The marketing slogan will compare the app – once considered a vital part of the Test and Trace system that is now running without it – to protective equipment such as gloves and masks. And it could … Read more
The artist who designed the iconic cover for Led Zeppelin’s debut album has sold the original tracing of the famous image for £260,000. Revered designer George Hardie, 76, was paid just £60 to produce his version of photographer Sam Shere’s image of the Hindenburg Zeppelin airship on fire in 1937 for the cover of Led … Read more
Matt Hancock is facing a fresh storm over the failed NHS contact tracing app today after it emerged the government pumped more than £11million into the failed project. Government transparency information showed at least 11 contracts have been awarded to private firms for work on the project, worth a total of £11,297,811. It is not clear … Read more
The NHS coronavirus contact tracing app will not be rolled out nationwide until winter at the earliest, a senior health minister admitted today. Lord Bethell, the health minister responsible for the Covid-19 testing programme, said the app – which was supposed to be the UK’s saving grace for easing lockdown – is no longer the … Read more
Compulsory face coverings and testing for everyone with symptoms could cut UK coronavirus deaths by 50,000 over two years until a vaccine is found, a study has claimed. A team of experts investigated 31 different scenarios for capping the UK death toll. Each scenario had a range of interventions, such as testing the whole population … Read more
England should not ease lockdown until the NHS contract tracing system aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus is ‘effective’, the World Health Organization has said. As the UK government prepares to launch a ‘comprehensive review’ of the strict two-metre social distancing regulations currently in place, WHO’s director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, has voiced … Read more
England should not ease lockdown until the NHS contract tracing system aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus is ‘effective’, the World Health Organization has said. As the UK government prepares to launch a ‘comprehensive review’ of the strict two-metre social distancing regulations currently in place, WHO’s director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, has voiced … Read more
Public Health England only had enough contact-tracing capacity to last two weeks before it became ‘exhausted’, scientists warned in February. A batch of scientific papers submitted to the Government’s SAGE committee were published today and reveal more of what officials were being told in the early stages of the UK’s epidemic. Researchers said there was … Read more