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The NHS has revealed details of its contact tracking application, which will be used to track COVID-19 infections as restrictions on ease of movement.
The app, which will be tested on the Isle of Wight starting this week, is expected to launch nationwide in the coming weeks.
As Sky News revealed in March, the app uses Bluetooth to detect nearby phones, which shows who owned the phone.
This will mean that Isle of Wight residents may receive a warning if one of their contacts contracts COVID-19and be able to warn any of your contacts if they are infected with the virus.
Movement restrictions will not be relieved on the Isle of Wight during the test.
But officials believe the app may play an important role in lifting the blockade, along with other measures, including testing and manual follow-up of contacts.
Authorities believe the app may play an important role in lifting the blockade
“The app is exciting,” said Matthew Gould, executive director of NHSX, the NHS innovation unit behind the app. “But it is not a one-shot solution or a magic bullet.”
“It is part of this broader strategy.”
Although the existence of the application has been known for more than a month, this is the first time that details of how it will work have been confirmed, although officials stress that they are still provisional at this stage.
Isle of Wight residents who download the app will be asked to turn on Bluetooth and allow notifications, and enter the first half of their zip code.
Then they will be asked, “How are you feeling today?”
Anyone who believes they may have captured COVID-19 can review a short checklist, asking if they have a fever or a continuous cough.
If your symptoms indicate that you may have coronavirusYou will be given a reference number and asked to call for a test.
You will also be invited to upload a list of your contacts to the NHS system, which will use a risk rating algorithm to decide which contacts are potentially dangerous.
This takes into account the duration of the contact and the intensity of the signal during the contact to assess the risk posed, which means that it will not compel everyone with whom someone has been quarantined.
Variations in the Bluetooth signal can also be used to determine if two phones detect each other through a wall, authorities said, since radio waves will be received differently if the wall has aluminum studs or insulation.
How does the contact tracking application work?
In response to questions about privacy, Gould emphasized that the application was voluntary to download and promised that NHSX would publish both the source code and the data protection arrangements underlying the application.
However, experts expressed concern about the government’s decision to choose a centralized system, which asks users to upload their contacts to a central system, rather than a decentralized model that needs less information.
Apple and Google, which are working together on a contact tracking system, plan to use a decentralized model, which the UK data watchdog has more readily praised for allowing “best practice compliance” with the regulations for Data Protection.
The two tech giants have announced that they will provide more resources to speed up what they call the “exposure notification app” ahead of a planned launch of an initial system in mid-May.
When asked why they had chosen to build their own system instead of relying on operating systems on almost every smartphone in the world, officials acknowledged that the app was still a work in progress.
However, they said, without a centralized system, they would not be able to rely on self-reporting of symptoms, but would have to wait for official tests, which are slow to come at a time when any infected person is highly contagious.
“We are working in a wide range of countries, and only the UK intends to trigger self-report based risks,” said Michael Veale, an academic participating in a decentralized contact tracking project that Apple and Google have borrowed. since.
“The UK appears to believe that it can compensate for the lack of ability to rapidly assess self-report individuals and mitigate the risks of intentional and unintentional false alarms with unspecified fraud analysis.”
“From my perspective, I think that such analysis may have the potential to stop large-scale clumsy attacks, but it will not be able to mitigate the broader risks of self-reporting.”
Matt Hancock has promised to hire 18,000 contact trackers in the coming weeks.
Another question that remains to be answered is how people without smartphones, such as young children and the elderly, will be able to use the system.
Gould said NHSX did not want to “accidentally exacerbate the digital divide” and government scientists suggested that manual contact tracing could be used to complement the technology.
In a briefing with reporters, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van Tam stressed that “it will never be the case that children are excluded from contact tracing.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised to hire 18,000 contact trackers in the coming weeks, though public health experts have wondered if this number is large enough, even with technical help.
