Coronavirus: NHS contact tracing app to target 80% of smartphone users
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A contact-tracing app could help stop the coronavirus pandemic, but 80% of current smartphone owners would need to use it, say experts advising the NHS.
The University of Oxford's Big Data Institute has modelled a city of one million people to simulate the software's impact.
If there is lower uptake, academics say the app would still help slow the spread of Covid-19.
They add that letting people self-diagnose the illness could be critical.
That means users would only have to answer an on-screen questionnaire before being judged to be at significant risk of infection. They would not have to speak to a health advisor or wait for a medical test result.
This would send a cascade of alerts to people they had recently been in proximity to, advising them to go back into self-isolation.
The experts say "speed is of the essence", and that delaying contact tracing by even a day from the onset of symptoms could make the difference between epidemic control and resurgence.
"There would be more people receiving notifications as a result of false warnings," explained Prof Christophe Fraser.
"But actually, it results in fewer days of people in self-isolation and quarantine, because the effect of suppressing the epidemic more quickly outweighs the risks in waiting for a test before the notification."
The over-70s have not been factored in, on the basis they would remain "shielded" by staying at home, he added.
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