The matter regarding the app was reportedly brought to the attention of the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock shortly before his resignation, but it wasn’t until a month later that his successor Sajid Javid announced that the app would be updated.
Thousands of people in the United Kingdom may have isolated for no reason due to an error with the NHS COVID app, The Guardian reports citing a source in Whitehall.
As the newspaper points out, while official guidelines for the app “defined close contact as occurring two days before the infected person had symptoms,” users apparently weren’t told that the app could “notify of contact with an infected person as far back as five days before the positive test.”
They also mentioned that this matter was apparently brought to the attention of former Health Secretary Matt Hancock shortly before his resignation.
The Labour Party has apparently used this opportunity to take pot shots at the government, with Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders calling it “another shambolic situation from hapless ministers.”
About a month after that, Hancock’s successor, Sajid Javid, said that the app would be updated in order to have the contacts of people who tested positive for COVID tracked from the last two days instead of five.
The health secretary reportedly said that it was being “updated based on public health advice to look back at contacts two days prior to a positive test.”
The Department of Health and Social Care didn’t challenge the whistleblower’s account, the newspaper notes, adding that the department is “making the case that the COVID app had different definitions of a close contact to test and trace, with a five-day period chosen for the asymptomatic because it is the halfway point in a potential 10-day infectious period.”
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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