Matt Hancock can’t give date for when new contact tracing app will be ready
After spending nearly three months trying to build a coronavirus contact tracing app, the Government still can’t say when it will be ready for rollout.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended the UK’s decision to scrap its current model and switch to technology developed by Apple and Google. Speaking at today’s Downing Street press conference he said some of the abandoned NHS app will be merged with the other platform to create a new and improved design.
He insisted the Government had always ‘backed both horses’ and had been working with both the health services’ app and the two tech giants’ model since May. But he said the programme developed by the NHSX digital arm hit a ‘technical barrier’ during a trial run on the Isle of Wight.
Hancock said: ‘We found that our app works well on Android devices but Apple software prevents iPhones being used effectively for contact tracing unless you are using Apple’s own technology. As it stands, our app won’t work because Apple won’t change their system, but it can measure distance. And their app can’t measure distance well enough to a standard that we are satisfied with.’
Hancock said the solution was to work together to overcome problems faced by both models. He added: ‘We have agreed to join forces with Google and Apple to bring the best bits of both systems together. We will share our algorithm and the work that we have done on distance calculation and combine that with their work to deliver a new solution.’
Visit our live blog for the latest updates: Coronavirus news live
Health Secretary initially said the track and trace app would be available in mid-May, but no release date has been given since. Hancock added: ‘We’re working on it. We’re not going to put a date on it I’m afraid because I’m absolutely determined that, whilst this technology can help, it’s got to be working effectively.’
Labour said the Government’s latest U-turn was ‘yet another example’ of its response to the crisis being ‘slow and badly managed’.
Officials earlier said the NHSX app was highly inaccurate when used on iPhones – only identifying around 4% of contacts – while the Apple-Google framework recorded 99% of all contacts.
But they acknowledged significant issues remain with the tech-giants’ model, an said they hope an app will be ready by the autumn-winter flu season, when many could exhibit coronavirus-like symptoms even if they do not have the disease.
Challenged on the idea the Government spent too long trying to build its own app Hancock said: ‘No, actually quite the contrary, I’m from Newmarket, we back both horses.
‘We took the decision in May to start building the Google-Apple version as well and then because we built both we could test both. And actually the best way to get new technology going is to test different approaches.
‘Far better to go with both versions and now we’ve got problems with both versions but there’s parts of each that can come together to build something that’s stronger than either version.’
Tory peer and executive chair of NHS Test and Trace Baroness Dido Harding said: ‘The reality is if we had not backed both horses we wouldn’t have a way forward.
‘Precisely because we’ve developed our own and developed some really sophisticated distance calculations we think that we can enhance the Google-Apple platform such that it will work.
‘This is a global challenge. What we have done in really rigorously testing both our own Covid-19 app and the Google-Apple version is demonstrating that none of them are working sufficiently well enough to actually be reliable to determine whether any of us should self-isolate for two weeks. That’s true across the world.’
The tech giants’ design enables more of people’s data to be kept private, which means the Government would have less access to figures on where coronavirus outbreaks are occurring.
In other developments, the Health Secretary set down the list for who will be vaccinated first if a successful vaccine is developed against Covid-19.
Frontline health and social care workers would be prioritised, followed by those aged 50 and over, and people who are obese or have underlying conditions.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.