Covid app pinged close contacts in prior five days not two, says source

[Northerner]

Many thousands of people may have isolated unnecessarily because a government error meant they were “pinged” by the Covid app for a “close contact” in the prior five days rather than two days, a Whitehall whistleblower has told the Guardian.

As the isolation rules for double vaccinated people were relaxed on Monday, it 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 test.

Official guidance for the NHS Covid app defined close contact as occurring two days before the infected person had symptoms, while the official NHS test-and-trace service has always used two days as its definition.

The Whitehall source said that the error had been flagged in a submission to Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, shortly before he resigned at the end of June but it had never been publicly admitted.

Thousands could have isolated for no reason due to Covid app error, says source

Whitehall whistleblower says Matt Hancock was told of mistake where people were classed as close contacts for five days, not two, before he resigned

www.theguardian.com

'World-beating' 🙄

 

[mikeyB]

Well, if the PCR test does detect the presence of the virus, you have to assume transmission is possible. This is how the pandemic spread, people could carry the virus asymptotically, yet still spread the infection.

In any event, it’s the contact with an infected person that creates the ‘ping’, whether that is through the bedroom wall between houses, or on a packed tube train. This is the main issue, really. Plus there is the question of whether with the higher infective nature of the Delta variant, the five-day limit for pinging is of any value. If you haven’t got symptoms, you probably aren’t infected, and don’t need to isolate.