No 10 has been left red-faced after wrongly saying the long-delayed NHS coronavirus app will not carry out contact-tracing – only to be slapped down by health officials.
The technology will finally be launched on Thursday – four months late – but without its original purpose, Downing Street had claimed, sparking fresh criticism.
But, within hours, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) issued a correction, insisting contact-tracing would be “at the heart of the NHS Covid-19 app”.
“It will log the time and distance a user has spent near to anyone, even if they don’t know them,” a spokesperson said.
“So it can alert them if necessary if that person later tests positive for Covid-19, and help them self-isolate, book a free test if they develop symptoms and get their results.”
An embarrassed No 10 spokesman later admitted he had been wrong to tell journalists that the ability to tell an app user if they had been in contact with an infected person would be missing.
The confusion had threatened to be the latest setback for an app once hailed by ministers as a game-changer in curbing the spread of Covid-19, but now barely mentioned.
It will use the bluetooth signal in both Apple and Android mobile phones to detect close and sustained contact between users, when it is launched on Thursday.
But it has been substantially rebuilt from an earlier version that was pulled from public release at the last minute after tests in the Isle of Wight revealed flaws.
There are also fears that it will have little impact unless installed by most of the public. Experts once warned an 80 per cent take-up was needed – but even the most successful apps in other countries have not topped 40 per cent.
The app will also allow users to check and report symptoms, to book a test, to find out if the result was positive, to check the local risk level and to provide contact details to premises.
Most contact-tracing will continue to be carried out by the much-criticised test-and-trace system, primarily run by private firms from call centres.
Meanwhile, in fresh evidence that tougher coronavirus restrictions are on their way in England, the prime minister will make a statement to the Commons on Tuesday.
Before that, he will host the first Cobra meeting since mid-May and – later on Monday –
will hold one-to-one talks with the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The spokesman could not say there were any plans to speak with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has protested at being frozen out.
He agreed with the scientific advisers that the coming months would be difficult, describing it as “what is likely to be a challenging winter period”.
“You can see what’s been happening over the course of the previous 72 or 96 hours,” the spokesman said.
“Today he will be engaging with the devolved administrations, let’s see where we get to.
Tomorrow morning is an opportunity for Cobra to discuss what next steps may be required in the coronavirus response.”
