Fault in NHS Covid app meant thousands at risk did not quarantine

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Northerner

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A code error in the NHS Covid-19 app meant users had to be next to a highly infectious patient for five times as long as the NHS had decided was risky before being instructed to self-isolate, the Guardian has learned.



The oversight in the app meant thousands of people were told they did not need to quarantine when they were in fact at risk of spreading coronavirus.

The problem was only discovered last week, when software engineers rewrote how the app decides who needs to isolate and discovered it had been relying on faulty maths since its launch in September. According to the Sunday Times, which reported on the flaw, a source said the fault meant that a “shockingly low” number of warnings were issued.

Despite claiming more than 19m downloads of the app, which is for use in England and Wales, the UK government has continually declined to reveal how many users have been advised to isolate. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, where similar apps have fewer users, more than 25,000 people have been warned of their possible exposure to the virus.

www.theguardian.com

Fault in NHS Covid app meant thousands at risk did not quarantine

Error meant users spent much longer next to infectious person before self-isolating
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Just when you thought it couldn't be more crap... 🙄
 
I saw that reported over the weekend. Though it was odd, hardly anywhere saying they were short of staff cos most were having to self isolate.
 
The main reason that I haven’t downloaded it is because I just don’t trust it!
 
Main reason we haven't is cos we so very very rarely (once a year if that) have the internet turned on, on our phones. How on earth can the App be 'active' when that's not enabled on the phone?
 
trophywench said:
How on earth can the App be 'active' when that's not enabled on the phone?
Click to expand...

Well, the specific bit that they're saying was broken mostly uses Bluetooth (which you may also have turned off, I guess), though I think it requires internet access at some point (maybe once a day or something). Wifi would be fine.

Similarly the similarly pretty useless premises checking stuff (the QR-code scanning bit): you can scan the QR code and I think that's just local but at some point the phone has to learn which premises have had problems and when. (I think that's so far almost never been used.)

Overall it seems to be living up to the governments record so far on world beating initiatives.
 
I can't download the app because I haven't got a smart phone, I have an old style pay as you go Nokia. However, on the rare occasions I have been out to eat staff have taken my details, the major flaw there is that anyone can give false information.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Well, the specific bit that they're saying was broken mostly uses Bluetooth (which you may also have turned off, I guess), though I think it requires internet access at some point (maybe once a day or something). Wifi would be fine.

Similarly the similarly pretty useless premises checking stuff (the QR-code scanning bit): you can scan the QR code and I think that's just local but at some point the phone has to learn which premises have had problems and when. (I think that's so far almost never been used.)

Overall it seems to be living up to the governments record so far on world beating initiatives.
Click to expand...

How on earth would I know whether it has bluetooth? Don't think we've been in an aeroplane since phones could do that have we? About 15 years I think. I mention flying because you have to turn the bluetooth off on my pump if I go on a plane. We can only get a very very small amount of data on our phones, as it's only for our own use in an emergency, so if we needed to go on the internet on it, we'd have to turn that on. I never ever need to at home, we have fibre and both use a laptop (ie 2 laptops) when we need the internet. Again out and about in the Moho, we go to a McDonalds or somewhere else that has wifi, about once a week to do what we need to do, and surfing forums certainly ain't one of the things we need to do.
 
No idea how old, maybe 3 poss 4 years, it's a Sony Xperia and my husband and I share the cheapest tariff between us that Virgin do, hence why we we have such a small data allowance on them both.
 
I am not familiar with Sony phones, but if it is only 4 years old it most probably has Bluetooth.
 
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