A trial version of the English coronavirus app is underway.
It will be restricted to residents in the Isle of Wight, London’s Newham borough and NHS volunteer responders to begin with.
The app will be available in Apple and Google’s online stores, but users will need to enter a code to activate it.
The software will tell users that they will self-isolate for fourteen days if the app discovers that they have been close to someone else diagnosed with the virus.
Baroness Dido Harding – who is the Broad Test and Trace Initiative – had previously expressed concerns about the implementation of the automated contact tracing feature due to fears that many people who were false flags were told to quarantine .
The app has several other features, including:
- An alarm system that informs users about the risk level for coronavirus near their home, with the area defined by the first part of their zip code
- A QR barcode scanner so users can check when they visit a local and be told if others there test positive later
- A symptom monitoring tool that allows users to book a free trial and get the results through the app
- A countdown feature that takes effect when told to leave self-isolating so users can track how long they stay home
It initially works in five languages, with plans to add more soon.
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The app shows people their local risk level and logs in when they’ve been to a location
The contact trace element of the software is based on Google and Apple’s privacy-centric system.
The developers recognize that there are still issues with measuring the distance between handsets, which means some people are mistakenly reporting as a high risk.
Official guidance for social distance says that two people should not be within 2m (6.6ft) of each other for 15 minutes or longer.
But if you try to detect this, lab tests indicate:
- 31% of cases are missed when the handsets were within range
- 45% of the cases were incorrectly flagged when the two handsets were in fact further apart
However, when the limit is set at 5m, the accuracy rates improve radically.
Then the handsets detect each other in more than 99% of all cases, despite iPhones and Android devices being involved.
This is not helpful in practice, but indicates the error that caused the original NHS Covid-19 app to be canceled. That product often failed to detect cases with two iPhones due to limitations imposed by third-party software by Apple.
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The pilot is underway on the Isle of Wight and will expand to Newham next week
The team behind the new app recognizes that more work needs to be done to reduce the number of false positions and false negatives that occur at 2m, but is optimistic that they can achieve this.
Part of the problem at the moment is that Apple and Google refuse to share the Bluetooth signaling data involved.
While the two show no signs of backing up, they will soon release a new version of their tool that should improve matters.
This development is also welcomed by those involved with the SwissCovid app of Switzerland.
“While the updated API of Google / Apple Exposure Notification [application programming interface] still aggregates and switches data for privacy reasons, it will expose more information that the app needs to calculate exposure more accurately, “explained Prof Mathias Payer of the EPFL University in Lausanne.
‘Battle to persuade’
The pilot comes at a time when clusters of people who have tested positive have led to local lockdowns, and major changes are being made to the way England’s manual contact tracing system is implemented.
Test and trace officials say the motivation for the app is “giving maximum freedom at minimal risk”, but acknowledging that it is not a “silver bullet”.
“By launching an app that supports our integrated localized approach to NHS Test and Trace, anyone with a smartphone will be able to find out if they are at risk of catching the virus, order a test quickly and easily and access the right one guidance and counseling, “said Baroness Harding.
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Those involved in the trial should enter a code to begin with, and then be told if they need to isolate themselves and for how long – based on when their symptoms began
However, she is not yet ready to say when a national outbreak could occur.
An academic who had served as an ethics advisor for the original scrapped app was positive about the fact that the trial this time was not limited to the Isle of Wight.
“This time it’s a more diverse area – and not just one full of older white people – because it was clear that before very little could be gained from demographic analysis,” said Prof Lillian Edwards.
But she added that the government still had a “battle to convince people” to install the software.
“The evidence from Italy is that people are not installing their Immuni contact tracing app, but that they may be if the number of infections goes up again.”
Another public health expert was even more skeptical.
“Even if they worked it out, the app probably makes no difference,” said Newcastle University professor Allyson Pollock.
“The problem is not just finding contacts, but the ability to get people to isolate and quarantine. And that means financial support has to be provided by the government.”
