The relaxation of isolation rules for double vaccinated people has emerged that users were never told the app could notify of contact with an infected person as far back as five days before the positive tests, says an article published in The Guardian.
Covid App Pings contact
A Whitehall whistleblower informed the Guardian that several thousand people have been unfairly isolated, because the government blunder meant that the Covid app had ‘pinged’ for a “close contact” in the previous five days.
Sajid Javid, the new health minister, said he will update the app so that persons without symptoms would only have their contacts screened for two days previous to a positive test, rather the five. This was “updated based on public health guidance to check back at contacts two days before to a positive test,” he explained.
Mixed-opinions on Covid App
“The standard definition of a contact in all the scientific and public stuff from Public Health England and NHS test and trace is someone who has been in contact from two days before they have symptoms and if they don’t have symptoms but test positive, you go back two days from the test,” the Whitehall source said.
“But the app had five days in it. A submission was made to Hancock from test and trace people around the time of his resignation saying ‘it’s five days but it should be two days: should we change it now? And it didn’t happen.”
Privacy campaigning
Al Ghaff, chief operating officer of the privacy campaigning organization the Open Rights Group, said the government’s approach to privacy risked undermining public trust.
“The disclosure means that many thousands of people have been pinged by the Covid app without their consent,” he said. “Since the outset of the pandemic, this government has displayed an extremely poor and cavalier attitude towards basic privacy and transparency safeguards. The government needs to stop turning public health tools into privacy nightmares and public health risks.”
Lack of transparency
The DHSC did not question the report of the Whistleblower and could not point to where the guidance of the Covid app referenced publicly to contacts who were searched for five days before a positive case.
When the representative of DHSC asked about the five-day advice charges of an issue in the application and lack of transparency, he added: “The NHS Covid-19 app is a key tool in our pandemic response, saving thousands of lives and breaking chains of transmission. The app prevented up to 2,000 cases of Covid-19 a day in July.
“App users will only ever be advised to isolate if they have been in close contact with an individual who goes on to test positive for Covid-19. It is important users isolate when asked to do so in order to stop the spread of the virus. The recent change to the app logic will result in fewer low-risk contacts being advised to isolate, while advising the same number of high-risk contacts to self-isolate.”
Welcoming relaxations
“Many businesses will be relieved by the changes to the self-isolation rules coming into force,” said Hannah Essex, co-executive director of the British Chambers of Commerce. “It should be remembered though that some disruption will continue, as about 25% of adults are not fully vaccinated, Covid infections remain high and there are persistent labour shortages in sectors such as agriculture, retail and hospitality.”
According to the 190,000 companies with a workforce of roughly 7 million, the CBI is still a critical part of its workers, who are still looking for their second job, such as hospitality “with a view to self- sufficiency.”
Essex also cautioned that the Government needs to implement measures in winter, with half of companies working in consumer-oriented industries – including hotel and retail – stating potential lockouts or restrictions are a serious barrier to the resumption of commerce to pre-pandemic levels.
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Source: The Guardian
