The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

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Rainbow
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The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Rainbow »

I downloaded the new app yesterday, but I'm not clear about how it works. It shows my postcode and tells me what level of risk my area is in. If I move out of my own postcode area, should it recognise that and automatically change it?

I've got an iPhone - do I need to activate Location Services for the app to work as it should? (And I can't do that anyway - it's greyed out so I can't click it.)

How does it know where I've been if there isn't a QR code to scan (which is most everywhere).

If anyone else has downloaded the app, can you see that it's tracking you?
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Tudor Rose »

The app should be working in the background to locate where you've been. So if you travel around it should pick that up, but the information for your "area" does always seem to show your home address. We are a TQ postcode at home and EX at work and it always shows the TQ one on the app. It does say it is active and scanning though.

My understanding is that it will then identify if you have spent a prolonged period of time (15 minutes or over) in close contact with someone who then tests positive. It will then send you a message to let you know and you can then self isolate and arrange a test direct from the app.

There is one app for England and Wales, another for Scotland and another for Northern Ireland and so I would guests that if you travel to a different app area you would need to download that app too .

The QR codes help them locate and trace people more specifically. We've printed one off for our shop and had a few people "check in" on the app already, they seemed quite pleased to be able to do that. You get a unique QR code and can generate that from the Government website.

There was a very good article about it on the BBC News website yesterday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54250736

If you click on the "about this app" button on the home screen of it then there is more information and a link to FAQs as well.
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Rainbow »

That's really helpful, particularly the article you've linked to. It looks as if mine is working correctly then, many thanks.
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Not your average framer »

Apparently the app does not work on mobile phones which do not have bluetooth, so it seems likely that you need to be within bluetooth range of another phone which has both blue tooth and the app as well. I would think that bluetooth is a really short range connection. It does not work on postcodes. Very often two premises with the same post code can be a quarter of a mile apart.
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Rainbow »

you need to be within bluetooth range of another phone which has both blue tooth and the app as well
Ah, I see, that makes sense. So when it says it's "active and scanning", it's not scanning for a GPS signal as I'd thought, in order to track location, it's scanning for other devices/apps. Thanks for clarifying that. And it gets a location if you scan a QR code, so it looks like it's a "belt & braces" approach. Let's hope it's effective!
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Not your average framer »

I'm not sure about it being effective, it's early days yet and it's not had much time to prove it and the government is saying that. If it woeks well it should help quite a lot and added to that some much faster tests are in the pipeline, so I think that thing are heading in the right diection. The early tracking and testing facilities are what we have got now, but the future stuff which is going to be a lot better is not far away.
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by misterdiy »

Well, being on the Isle of Wight, we have had the app (and its forerunner) for some time. Everything said above is correct. You will not notice that you have any issues within your vicinity unless you have been somewhere where someone has got Covid and its picked up on your phone. As Mark says, it needs bluetooth, plus in IOS it needs IOS13.x as a minimum. My old iPhone 6 would not be able to download the App. We have been LOW risk for weeks but suddenly this weekend we have been notified that our risk level has risen to Medium, but again that seems to be generic and not for a specific postcode. There are roughly 140,000 residents on the island (plus the same again as visitors) and we have 5 cases.

If you have been near someone positive, the app lets the tracers know and they contact you by phone and give you a grilling (allegedly) and tell you to isolate. If the app says its active then thats all you will get from it. The rest is manual intervention
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Steve N »

The Post Code, risk level, such as Medium, is set if the neighbouring area is High, as you can't go from Low to High, so your area is set to Medium as there is a greater risk of spread from a High Risk area, I'd does not mean if before you downloaded the app, your area was a Low Risk area, and now since you downloaded the app it's Medium, that more people have been actually infected, the numbers have not increased but the chances are more likely to increase due to the neighbouring High risk area.
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Re: The NHS Covid-19 app - how does it work?

Post by Not your average framer »

I can't see why the tracking software needs to be dealing with risk factors, it's only required for tracing contacts when somebody is confirmed as covid-19 possitive, if those who have the app on their mobile phone never get the virus, there is no need to know who they have been in contact with there is no need to know who they have been in contact with.
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