Credit: The Telegraph
With the UK emerging from lockdown, the Government has been trying to find a way to track down coronavirus cases and prevent a second wave.
One solution is a contact-tracing app- the NHS Covid-19 app — which can enable digital contact-tracing using Bluetooth technology on a large scale.
After months of delays, the NHS Covid-19 app has just been launched across the UK. It uses Bluetooth to anonymously warn people if they have come into contact with someone with coronavirus, and QR codes so people can check in at hospitality.
On Thursday, September 24, pubs, restaurants and other businesses urged to have QR codes ready for customers to check in when they visit.
The Department of Health and Social Care said trials which began last month show the app is "highly effective when used alongside traditional contact tracing" to identify contacts of people who have tested positive for coronavirus.
The app, which uses Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of those in close proximity, has been beset by problems and delays.
On May 5, the Government revealed its first attempt at a contact-tracing app. But in a major u-turn, on June 18, the Government admitted the app was flawed and it would switch to a model being developed by tech giants Apple and Google.
The latest version has been trialled once again on the Isle of Wight and also in the London Borough of Newham.
In the absence of an app to date, the UK has so far been using trained teams to call up people who have coronavirus symptoms to track the spread of Covid-19 and ask them to isolate.
So what exactly is digital contract tracing, and when will it be available for everyone?
How do I download the NHS Covid-19 app?
You can download the NHS Covid-19 app from Apple App Store or on Google Play. Simple visit the app store on your Android smartphone or iPhone, and search for NHS Covid-19. You can find the links to the iOS version here and the Android version here.
How do contact tracing apps work?
NHS contact tracing app – What is it and how does it work?
A contact-tracing app is designed to let people know if they have been in close contact with someone who later reports positive for Covid-19.
It could pinpoint exactly who needs to be in quarantine and who doesn’t, making it useful for easing up social distancing measures. The purpose of the contact-tracing app is to try and track down people and alert them of the need to self-isolate faster than traditional methods.
Users who download the app to their phone can opt-in to record details of their symptoms when they start to feel unwell. In some countries, they can enter official Covid-19 test results to confirm they have the virus.
The app keeps a trace of others who have been in close contact through Bluetooth signals that transmit an anonymous ID. These low energy Bluetooth signals perform a digital "handshake" when two users come into close contact.
How NHS app will track and trace virus
If an individual later reports that they are positive for coronavirus, it will then ping a message to people who have been in close-contact with them in the last 28 days based on their secret IDs.
The app will recommend those people self-isolate in case they have contracted the disease. Those contacted won’t know the identity of the person who may have passed on coronavirus.
Apps to perform contact-tracing using Bluetooth have already been rolled out in Germany, Scotland, Singapore, Italy and even in Northern Ireland.
What was the technology behind the previous NHS app?
NHS contact tracing app – What is the technology behind it?
In April, the NHS began working on its first contact tracing app.
The NHS’s technology and research arm NHSX developed the first version of the app with researchers from Oxford University and using developers from tech companies like VMWare.
The technology the NHS built would have let smartphones track every other device they have come into contact within the 28 days using Bluetooth signals.
How contact tracing works
This data would not be linked to people’s names but use anonymous IDs linked to a device, so phone owners will not know who might have passed on the virus.
Why was the previous NHS app scrapped?
The app had been sent back to the drawing board after the Government decided the current approach presented too many technical challenges.
Technical problems included an audit that found it could detect only one in 25 contacts on Apple phones in some cases. The app also did not work on Android phones that were more than four years old.
The root of these problems were due to the fact the NHSX app was trying to work around privacy limitations placed on smartphones by Apple, which makes iPhones, and Google, which makes Android.
These limitations meant that when iPhones went idle, they would stop registering Bluetooth matches, making the technology ineffective.
The revamped app is due to launch on August 13, but it will be a stripped down version of the one first proposed.
Read more: The troubled history of the NHS tracing app that was destined to fail
How does the app developed by Google and Apple work?
The two tech giants have teamed up to offer each country a piece of technology that will help turn all iPhones and all Android phones (apart from newer Huawei devices) into contact tracing devices.
Apps that use the API (which must be made by a public health official) send users “exposure notifications” if they have been in contact with someone who contracted coronavirus.
The main difference with what NHSX was originally trying to build, is data from the contact-tracing app never leaves the phone. So, while the NHS had hoped to use this data for research, Apple and Google’s so-called “decentralised” model keeps that information strictly on the phones.
Apple and Google contract tracing
The system records contact as when a smartphone is within a couple of feet of another device for up to 10 minutes. Bluetooth wireless technology can sense devices from up to 15 ft away.
Even if people from different countries or states have different contact tracing apps, the system is interoperable and will be able to alert them to exposure.
These Exposure Notification upgrades are now in the process of being added to Android and iOS operating systems. This works independently of a custom, nation-wide app, however, to upload a test result you still need to use a public health authority approved service. The software will also only become available on your iPhone or Android device if you are in an area where a public health app or service is already running.
Health authorities can also use the technology to build a simple, out of the box contact-tracing service. The tech giants are calling this Exposure Notifications Express. This should help speed up the uptake of digital contact-tracing, since users no longer need to download an app.
To find this software, update your phone to the latest Android or iOS. In iOS, go to Settings, General, Updates. On Android, go to Settings, About Phone, Check for Updates. In England, Scotland and Wales, the notifications currently cannot be activated.
Google said that the tools would be added to Android via a download in the Google Play store. Apple will offer it via an iOS software update. Apple said the goal is to make it compatible with as many iPhones as possible, including older models.
This is the technology the UK is now using for its own app.
What will the UK’s new app look like and when will it launch?
The latest version of the app launched on September 24. The new app will have Bluetooth powered digital contact-tracing powered by Apple and Google’s decentralised model.
The app will also have other bells and whistles. These include QR code scanning that will allow people to check into pubs and restaurants. If a case of Covid is reported there, they can then be alerted quickly.
We have developed a new #NHSTestandTraceapp to help tackle the spread of coronavirus.
The state of the art app will be trialled by volunteers from the Isle of Wight, @NHSVolResponder across England and later residents of Newham.
Find out more: https://t.co/xEwGVxUCML pic.twitter.com/gKHM5JJhU1
— NHS Test and Trace app (@NHSTestTraceapp) August 13, 2020
Users signing up to the app will be required to enter the first few digits of their post code. The main screen features the option to turn the device’s Bluetooth contact tracing on or off.
It also the QR code scanner, a tab to book a test, a symptom checker, and a personalised risk rating. This rating is based on the number of cases around a user’s local postcode. It will operate on a traffic light system of red, yellow and green.
If a user is asked to self-isolate, the app will show a red timer counting down the days until they are allowed out of their self-imposed lockdown.
Read more about the UK’s new contact-tracing app here.
Will the app track GPS or need mobile data?
NHS contact tracing app – Will the app track GPS or need mobile data?
The app uses Bluetooth signals to check for contacts. This means it does not need to connect to mobile data when you are out and about. For now the app does not track GPS signals. It does ask uses to enter the first few digits of their post code.
Are there privacy concerns?
NHS contact tracing app – Are there privacy concerns?
Some privacy experts have raised concerns that patient confidentiality risks being compromised.
Dr Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, head of the Computational Privacy Group at Imperial College London, has warned that such apps could “collect sensitive information like location data”.
“We need to do everything we can to help slow the outbreak. Contact tracing requires handling very sensitive data at scale, and solid and proven techniques exist to help us do it while protecting our fundamental right to privacy. We cannot afford to not use them,” he said.
Mr Hancock has pushed back against the privacy concerns, claiming that data would only be held as long as it was needed and that “all data will be handled according to the highest ethical and security standards”.
“If you become unwell you can securely tell this new NHS app, and the app will then send an alert anonymously to other app users who you’ve been in significant contact with,” the health secretary said.
Coronavirus podcast — Was the NHS contact tracing app doomed from the start? 19/06/20 (doesn’t auto update)
Have other countries made something similar?
In Singapore, a contact-tracing app called TraceTogether has been rolled out by the government to track those who might be infected by coronavirus.
Since March 20 it has been downloaded over 800,000 times in the hopes of creating a “community-driven” response to the virus.
But contact-tracing apps around the world have been hit by technical and privacy challenges. Norway announced it would be deleting app data gathered by its own contact-tracing app amid privacy concerns. Australia’s app, meanwhile, was found to have a bug that meant it stopped working on iPhones when they were locked.
What about Northern Ireland and Scotland?
While England and Whitehall have lagged behind in developing a contact-tracing app, Northern Ireland has already launched its own version. This app now has a quarter of a million downloads and runs entirely on the Apple and Google system. It is decentralised and uses Bluetooth to match between phones.
The technology has been developed by Irish company NearForm and is based on the same technology that is being used in the Republic of Ireland.
In Scotland, meanwhile, more than 600,000 people have now downloaded the Protect Scotland mobile phone contact tracing app.
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