Test and Trace: Seven things you need to know about the Isle of Wight’s new coronavirus app

Read more: Coronavirus tracking phone app to be trialled on the Isle of Wight

Scroll down to read seven key things you need to know

Details have just been officially unveiled tonight (Monday). Within a week, Isle of Wight homes will receive a letter asking residents to download the smartphone app. It is not compulsory to do so. 

The NHS says it has developed it with the help of people with privacy and security expertise. It says any usage will help shape the way the UK understands the spread of coronavirus.

The NHS says the more Islanders who choose to download and use it, the better the results will be.

The app has already been trialled on an RAF base in the north of England and will, over the coming weeks, be rolled out across the UK.

Scroll down for the seven key things you need to know...

The app is mainly aimed at the Island's key workers because they are still allowed out during lockdown. People using and operating public transport, making deliveries and carrying on with their work outside their homes will come into contact with others who are doing the same. Using bluetooth, their phones could build a picture of how Covid-19 symptoms spread and will prompt a warning to those who have unwittingly come into contact with it.

Messages advising Islanders to isolate and get tested will be sent to those who need it, prompted by the people who have symptoms and use the app to report them.

In briefings today (Monday), experts have sought to answer questions and concerns about how data will be managed and how the app will work. 

Here are the seven key messages you need to know...

How will it work? 

• Works on both android and Apple; interacts between the two 
• Runs on bluetooth, as a background app
• We’re told it won’t drain your phone’s battery and won’t interfere with other apps 
• Won’t be affected by a loss of phone signal, because it will use bluetooth to search for other phones that are close to yours (sending a ping to acknowledge them, and storing those interactions anonymously for a rolling 28 days) 
• We'll be asked to enter the first half of our postcode.
• We'll be asked whether or not we have had any new or recent symptoms - a continuous cough or a high temperature.
• We'll be asked to agree to push notifications. If your phone is found to have been near to one from which symptoms have been reported, you will get a message advising you.
• Push messages will not be sent live and in real time. They’ll be dispatched in up-to-six hourly batches. When your phone uses wifi or 4G, the app will search for any updates that affect you.
• There will be extra guidance for medical workers on the Isle of Wight, including prompts asking them to disable the app at times when they are wearing PPE.
• Changes will be made over time, and from area-to-area, about who needs to be made aware of another app user’s symptoms.
• Only interactions considered to be ‘risky’ will be flagged up. These might include the ones that lasted longer, or were detected by two phones very close together.

How many of us need to use it on the Isle of Wight?

The developers say the numbers are not black and white, despite calls from politicians to get fifty percent of Islanders using it. 

Any downloads will be useful, says developer NHSX.

It says when you get up to half the population using the app, you can impact the spread of coronavirus much more effectively, possibly even eradicating it altogether.

What about privacy?

It listens out for a ping.

• The app has been created by NHSX - a joint team from the NHS and the government’s Department of Health and Social Care. 
• NHSX’s chief data officer, Geraint Lewis, said:  “Leave the app running in the background and it takes soundings of other app users nearby, in a completely anonymous way. Every user gets allocated a random number. It listens out for a ping, which shows how far the next person’s phone was and how long they were in contact.”
• Information will be sent to a central server, but it will be anonymised and randomised, says NHSX.
• Data will be retained in case there is ever another pandemic and it needs to be used again.
• Details of how the app has been developed will be published by NHSX.
• The collection of data will be treated in the same way as the NHS uses other information, we are told.

Does this mean lockdown measures are being eased?

The government’s Director of Health Improvement, Professor John Newton (formerly regional Director of Public Health for NHS South Central, which covers the Isle of Wight) said: “We’re not changing any of the advice around social distancing. All the things to protect the safety of the population are still there. This is an additional tool to drive down infection, so when we do relax the rules there is a lot less infection around.”

Lockdown rules stay the same. 

Anyone can use it, during daily exercise or a trip to the supermarket, but the app is primarily aimed at key workers, who are out and about  keeping the Isle of Wight’s community moving. 

What happens if I get ill?

If you choose to report symptoms through the app, it will allocate you with a unique PIN number and prompt you to call an 0800 helpline. 

You will be asked to give your address, so a test can be delivered to you. 

Isle of Wight Council says it has drivers on standby, ready to deliver swab tests to the doorsteps of those who develop new symptoms.

The tests will be collected within 24 hours.

What if I don’t have a smartphone?

Chief data officer for NHS England and NHSX, Geraint Lewis, said: “Everybody will benefit from this app - even if they don’t have it themselves.”

Director of Public Health for the Isle of Wight, Simon Bryant, said: “We’ll be looking at how we monitor the population groups that haven’t downloaded it and the impact on them.”

A dedicated website will explain how to download and use the app.

The Isle of Wight Council says volunteers from the Island’s community groups are on standby to help those who want to use it but are unsure about how to download apps to their phones.

What do the experts say?

The Isle of Wight is the vanguard.The government’s director of health improvement, Professor John Newton, said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to use digital technology to get contract tracing quickly. It’s much quicker and more extensive at scale.”

Chief data officer for NHS England and NHSX, Geraint Lewis, said: “Privacy has been right at the heart of everything we’ve done. It’s only going to happen if people trust the thing. 

“The Isle of Wight is the vanguard. We’re going to learn and improve. High quality apps continually evolve. You’re always getting updated. That’s what we’re going to do with this app. I’m chuffed that we’re launching this on the Isle of Wight. I get a real sense of the community coming behind this.”