Contact-tracing app will not be ready before winter

Lord Bethell of Romford has said that the mobile phone contact-tracing app will not be ready before the winter and is not a priority for the government at the moment.

The contact-tracing app, which tells people they may have been exposed to coronavirus, has been considered a central part of the government’s response to the pandemic. Health Secretary Matt Hancock had said that the app would receive national roll-out by mid-May. Developed by NHSX, the app is intended to send a notification warning to the smartphone user when they have come into close proximity to someone infected with the virus.

However, speaking to the MPs on the Commons Science and Technology Committee, Lord Bethell, the minister for innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care, claimed that the pilot scheme on the Isle of Wight had shown that people prefer to be contacted by a human being with the bad news, rather than by text message or email.

He said: “One of the things it has taught us is that it is the human contact that is the one most valued by people. And in fact there is a danger of being too technological and relying too much on text and emails and alienating or freaking out people because you’re telling them quite alarming news through quite casual communications.”

Lord Bethell also maintains that it is still the government’s intention to introduce the app, but that ‘we’re seeking to get something going for the winter, but it isn’t a priority for us’.