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£35 Million Test and Trace App Only Contacts Half of People Who Need to Self-Isolate

by Michael Curzon
26 April 2021 5:46 PM

A recent survey suggested that more Brits are now willing to follow self-isolation rules after coming into contact with someone with Covid (90%) than in early March (84%). But how important are compliance rates if people don’t know they are required to isolate? The Test and Trace app – which has cost the taxpayer at least £35 million – is contacting fewer than half of its users who need to self-isolate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Telegraph has the story.

The NHS Test and Trace app is contacting people who need to self-isolate in fewer than half of coronavirus cases, new data show.

A survey by the ONS found that in early April, only 48% of those who had downloaded the app and were required to self-isolate received a notification.

Of these, just 15% received the app notification at least a day before any other source, such as a phone call from a contact tracer.

The figures are the latest indication of the extremely limited impact the technology has played in reducing the spread of cases, despite costing at least £35 million.

They follow the delay of a software update earlier this month after a new check-in feature was found to violate Apple and Google’s privacy rules.

The ONS figures also found that nine out of 10 people required to self-isolate after being in contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus said they fully adhered to the rules.

However, of the respondents who did not follow self-isolation requirements, 78% reported they left the house for non-permitted reasons during their 10-day isolation period, the ONS said.

Of those who left their homes, 27% said they had gone to the shops, while 13% went out for outdoor recreation or exercise.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Self-IsolationTest and Trace
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24 Comments
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court
court
4 years ago

Yeah, 9 of 10 people stayed in. I’d say that too.

12
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  court

So would I since being single and living alone the alternative would be to starve to death.

6
0
Cristi.Neagu
Cristi.Neagu
4 years ago

Only contacts half the people who need to self isolate? But… isn’t that just half of 0?

29
0
steve_w
steve_w
4 years ago

even in enforced quarantine you are allowed to leave for an emergency. I think you can leave for mental health reason – such as meeting up with mates to sink a few cans

17
0
RickH
RickH
4 years ago

Widespread ‘Test and Trace’ has always been a waste of time and money. Which is why it was never recommended by proper strategy documents.

It sounds like a cunning wheeze, but like many such, simply doesn’t work – because in the instance of Covid, it cannot identify true infection because of the use of tests that are useless diagnostically – thus the term ‘people who need to isolate’ is an overblown fiction.

Much better to encourage the truly symptomatic to be aware and do what we’ve always done : self-isolate.

34
0
Julian
Julian
4 years ago
Reply to  RickH

Indeed. The app is doubtless not much good but the much bigger waste of money is the whole T,T&T mechanism, which employs lots of people doing nothing useful.

17
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

I have come to believe that the true purpose of Track’n’Trace is to become the backbone of the future CCP Social Credit monstrosity of which instructions to isolate is an integral part and for plenty of other reasons than just your physical health.

It’s current half hearted performance, with staff sitting around playing Monopoly is because they are on a trial run giving plenty of time to iron out glitches in what will be a devilishly complicated IT system.
I’ve also become a 5G conspiracy theorist as that network is required to handle the vast amount of data generated by Social Credit.

btw, I thought Track’n’Trace was costing 47 billion rather than 45 million.

12
0
realarthurdent
realarthurdent
4 years ago
Reply to  RickH

Even the WHO had a “Not Recommended” in the box opposite “Contact Tracing” in their pandemic guidance published in Q4 2019.
Once a virus is widespread, not only is it pointless trying to contact trace – it is counterproductive.

12
0
Bella Donna
Bella Donna
4 years ago

This is interesting

https://21stcenturywire.com/2021/04/24/french-vaxx-center-mistakenly-injects-140-people-with-normal-saline-solution/

10
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  Bella Donna

For what reason would securely manufactured and sealed little bottles clearly labelled ‘Brand X Covid Vaccine’ come to contain saline solution ?

Intended for the great and the good perhaps, receiving a placebo for the sake of the press.

10
0
JohnK
JohnK
4 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

You never know, but some of them might not even have been placebos, if the recipient knew it was junk just to ‘spin’ the policy! They’ll never admit to having done that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they had.

5
0
Carrie Symonds
Carrie Symonds
4 years ago

I think we need that Michie woman to explain to Boris that people couldn’t give a flying fuck about his moonshot track and trace.

22
0
Major Panic in the jabby jabbys
Major Panic in the jabby jabbys
4 years ago
Reply to  Carrie Symonds

that witchie mitchie woman…

8
0
Major Panic in the jabby jabbys
Major Panic in the jabby jabbys
4 years ago

is ‘test n trace’ still a thing? who knew?

14
0
TheBluePill
TheBluePill
4 years ago
Reply to  Major Panic in the jabby jabbys

Not for me. I’ve been asked to do track and trace barcode four times in the last fortnight. Simple ignored the first three requests, which they didn’t notice. Most recently I roughly aimed my (powered down) phone in the general direction and said “beep”.

19
0
Ozzie
Ozzie
4 years ago
Reply to  TheBluePill

I have a Nokia 130 – new model of a very old phone. It does take photos (makes calls and sends texts, but that is about it!). Next time I am asked to check in, I will photograph the QR code rather than write down my details. I wonder if anyone will notice or care. However, if asked I will be able to show them a lovely photo of their QR code!

9
0
JohnK
JohnK
4 years ago
Reply to  Ozzie

Mine’s an 8 year old Nokia 515 (in which I replaced the battery last year). Not normally on, but only used for emergency outgoing calls, or occasional SMS for certain things (e.g. the HMRC and the bank know the number, so they use it as a one-off login code for some things), or occasionally as a router if there’s a major landline fault etc. Isolated it’s ‘blutooth’ option as well.

You might know that there are freebie QR code creation tools, so you can make your own sarcastic codes to let them read, display on your badge etc if need be! I’ve got one added in to Firefox (which I’m using now).

5
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
4 years ago
Reply to  TheBluePill

I haven’t come across it since ‘eat out to help out’ and then I went elsewhere.

2
0
Annie
Annie
4 years ago

‘Need’ to self-isolate?
Hogwash.
Told to self-isolate by bedwetting loons.

13
0
leicestersq
leicestersq
4 years ago

The whole concept of track and trace makes no sense when the virus becomes widespread. No way can you lock a virus down once it is out in the wild.

But it becomes even more looney once you have a ‘vaccine’. The way out at that point is to let the virus spread. Those ‘vaccinated’ will be immune, those who have had the virus will be immune and those susceptible will have happily accepted the risk rather than take the ‘vaccine’.

The only purpose now for track and trace is to divide and conquer the people of the UK. They will split the unvaccinated from the vaccinated and bring conflict between them. It is difficult to see how this isnt all ending in depopulation.

15
0
JohnK
JohnK
4 years ago
Reply to  leicestersq

Except that the paperwork issued to promote the “vaccine” does not actually say so, in fact, it says they don’t know if it will. “We do not yet know whether it will stop you from catching and passing on the virus”: NHS leaflet issued in March 2021. You’re broadly right about real vaccines, though.

5
0
caipirinha17
caipirinha17
4 years ago

I am sure self isolation works just fine if you’re living a lovely 50s style middle class lifestyle with a nice big house / garden in a village, enough spare cash to not mind losing 2 weeks wages and plenty of stored food. However, if you’re a single parent living in a cramped flat with 2/3 sick kids needing meds and nothing in the cupboards you’ve got a very different choice to make.

22
0
Jezebel71
Jezebel71
4 years ago

Is that the thing you download onto your phone and then point it at QR codes? Most businesses up here (Cumbria) don’t have one, supermarkets hide them in the closed-down cafe area, and in 2 places they were stuck in such bad positions that they were soon too ragged and damaged to scan. Upon pointing this out, I was told Oh yes, somebody else said that. So there are at least 2 of us up here with the app. It must be a hugely valuable resource.

0
0
Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
4 years ago

Right. “A survey” by the ONS. So someone rings to ask if you are following rules and you tell the truth? Total fiction.
Like the census – you fill in the census truthfully if you are dealing drugs in a cuckoo flat, an active criminal, an illegal immigrant, in unlawful occupation of a council flat, overcrowding unlawfully in a council flat, or the landlord filling in census for overcrowded private accommodation?
Not worth a report.

2
0

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