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COWES, England (Reuters) – The coronavirus outbreak ended the Isle of Wight May Day festivities this week and drew attention to the island for a very different reason: a testing ground has been designated for an application. tracking designed to stop the spread of the virus.
UK National Health Service employee Anni Adams discusses the new NHS application to trace contacts with people potentially infected with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) being tested on the Isle of Wight, Britain, May 5, 2020. Photograph taken on May 5, 2020. REUTERS / Binnie Island
While walking down the unusually quiet High Street in Cowes, where visitors generally get off the ferry from the south coast of England, local councilwoman and health service employee Anni Adams said her hometown would have been preparing street parties.
“It would have been all down here, with bunting. It seems like yesterday we were meeting, umming and something about whether to move on. ”
Instead, Adams is one of the health-care workers and council staff who on Tuesday became the first cohort to start downloading to their smartphones an application that the British government hopes can help limit virus transmission. , which has now infected more than 3.5 million people. around the world.
It is Britain’s response to the kind of software that, along with more extensive testing and monitoring, is seen as key to easing the movement restrictions that have paralyzed economies.
Its use will be voluntary, giving anyone with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test the option to enter their details to begin the screening process.
Unlike similar projects in other European countries, Britain has chosen to process data centrally rather than on the devices themselves, where a higher level of privacy can be guaranteed.
Adams says he believes he is one of many people who have had concerns about privacy, but Britain’s National Health Service, a unit that developed the app, has expertise in data management and, anyway, ” it’s a bigger picture right now. ”
“If we can help get out of the island lockdown and help save lives, that is more important to me than knowing if a person on the phone knows I went to Waitrose yesterday,” he said, referring to a British supermarket.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday that privacy and data security were paramount in the development of the app.
The island was chosen for the project in part because the national health services for its entire population of 140,000 people are administered by a single entity.
Ideally, more than half the population will download the app, its developer said Monday, but adoption by 20% or more would give an important insight into how the virus was spreading.
The rest of the island’s citizens will be invited to download the application from Thursday.
Binnie Island Report; editing by Stephen Addison
