Government has ‘one chance’ to get track and trace programme right, experts warn

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The Government’s new action plan to stop the spread of coronavirus and start to look at easing measures has to be watertight for it to work.

Contact tracing apps could have major flaws

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced last night the test, track and trace programme to get the UK back on track as it fights coronavirus.

But contact tracing will rely on having accurate data and and an app, which has been one of the methods used around the world, could have major flaws.

Tom Pressley of tech communications firm Everbridge warned any national contact tracing app could have “serious chinks in its armour”.

Mr Pressley told HOAR Online: “There are some flaws in taking a purely app based approach that the Government is going to have to try and solve.”

“The solutions governments are looking at – they get one chance to get it right, so it has to be right the first time.”

“(An app) assumes that the data people will upload is going to be reliable.

“It assumes that adoption (of the app) will be universal… for it to be successful you need a take up of around 60 to 80 per cent.”

Relying on an app such as the one being developed by Apple and Google would also mean everyone would need to have a smartphone.

But he warned only around 40 per cent of elderly people, who will need accurate information the most, have smartphones.

Other countries who have already tried to introduce tracing apps have only had 10 to 15 per cent of the population download the app.

Singapore, for example, introduced its TraceTogether app – but only a fifth of the population has downloaded it, nowhere near enough for it to be effective.

One of the solutions could be sending out text blasts which can both inform people of an outbreak in their area, and ask them for information about their circumstances including age, health conditions and symptoms.

Texts could also be sent out to tell specific areas to self-isolate.

Everbridge’s communication technology has been tried and tested during natural disasters, such as Cyclone Dorian last year, and allows messages to be sent to those that need the information.

Mr Pressley said: “We’ve been working with governments and businesses and stuck with this technology because it is robust and reliable and able to hit a critical mass of people.

“That’s not to say we’re going to blast everyone in the country, because the detail you want is to be able to localise some of these messages.

“If there is an outbreak around the corner we draw a map around that area of, say, a 2 miles radius, and we can then send out an instruction very quickly.

“(We can) tailor that specific message to specific people, so we could send out a message to people of a certain age.”

Countries such as Norway have already started using the text alerts to tailor messages to particular groups of people, such as foreign nationals, who can be detected by their phone’s SIM card.

It means any information can be sent out in the language the person speaks.

Mr Pressley said: “Are the Government really considering the different nuances of different demographics in a particular city or a different country?”

“We’ve always had the philosophy of not leaving anyone behind.”