NHS coronavirus tracing app will be rolled out across England next week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirms following Isle of Wight trial
- Health Secretary has confirmed mid-May roll-out for the NHS tracing app
- Also provided clarity on the slow easing of the coronavirus lockdown rules
- Government is allowing people to meet one person outside their household
- Mr Hancock said this should be in a park or open space, not their garden
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
The NHS coronavirus tracing app will be rolled out across England next week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed following its Isle of Wight trial.
Mr Hancock said the app being trialled on the Isle of Wight would be rolled out across in the coming days.
He told Sky News: ‘We’re rolling out in mid-May. The Isle of Wight project has gone well so far, we’ve learned a lot about how the app operates. We’re pleased with progress, and we’re going to bring it in.’
Mr Hancock said the app being trialled on the Isle of Wight would be rolled out across in the coming days
The Health Secretary continued to face questions about elements of the new rules which will apply in England as lockdown eases.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Hancock said there was a ‘common sense’ principle as to why children can be looked after by childminders, but not other family members from outside their household.
He said: ‘For some people’s livelihoods they need a childminder in order to earn an income and so that is important we allow that to happen.
‘But at the same time we don’t want to encourage the large scale, we don’t want to encourage people – especially when grandparents are older and we know this virus kills more older people than younger people – we don’t want to encourage kids to stay with their grandparents, but we do want to allow people, where possible to get back to work.’
He also confirmed that when people decided to meet one other person at a distance and outdoors, they should meet in parks and open spaces, not in their gardens.
He said one of the reasons is that gardens can sometimes only be accessed through a house.
Mr Hancock said an idea being considered by experts could help relieve the ‘anguish’ of people wanting to see their grandparents or partners.
The Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has been asked to look at the idea of a household ‘bubble’ in the coming weeks, where one household is allowed to join up with and interact with one other household only.
Mr Hancock said it may help relieve anxiety as long as it did not impact on pushing the reproductive rate of the virus – the R – above one.
He said: ‘I think it will help with this anguish of a lot of people wanting to see family members in another household, whether that’s a grandparent – although there are the risks for older grandparents – or for people who are in a relationship but are in different households, and I understand that yearning as well.’
Mr Hancock admitted patients had been discharged from hospitals to care homes with Covid-19 but said it was before there was ‘widespread transmission’ of the virus.
This is despite the fact the Government only told hospitals they must test patients for coronavirus before discharging them to care homes on April 16.
Mr Hancock said: ‘At the start of this crisis, before there was widespread coronavirus in the community, then at that point we did take a lot of people who were in hospital but could clinically be in a care home, and put them in care homes.
‘But that was before there was widespread coronavirus in the community.
‘We then introduced the testing on leaving hospital to make sure people leaving hospital were tested whether they were displaying symptoms or not.’