Test, trace and track measures planned for UK to help deal with Covid-19 coronavirus
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A “more targeted lockdown” could be the result of the UK moving towards widespread testing, tracking and tracing of Covid-19.
UK health minister Matt Hancock announced the move at this evening's Downing Street briefing.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had already announced similar moves for Scotland.
The plan south of the border will see a pilot scheme launched on the Isle of Wight first before being expanded to the rest of the country.
At today's briefing Mr Hancock reiterated claims that the UK had surpassed 100,000 daily tests.
He said: “We've built a national testing infrastructure capable of over 100,000 tests a day.
"Today the capacity stands at 109,000 – this means we are now in a position to start implementing the next part of our plan, track and trace.
“The aim of test, track and trace is to hunt down and isolate the virus so it's unable to reproduce.
"Crucially test, track and trace allows us to take a more targeted approach to lockdown while still safely containing the disease.
“Creating the system is a huge national undertaking of unprecedented scale and complexity. We've already taken Britain's small but brilliant diagnostics industry and taken it to global scale.
“We are building an army of human contact tracers who can man the phones and find the contacts and support people and, of course, with developing the contact tracing app which can help us deliver test, track and trace on the mass scale that we need.
“The app, which takes full consideration of privacy and security, has already been tested in closed conditions at an RAF base.
“Once you've installed the app it will start logging the distance between your phone and other phones with an app nearby.
"It has been designed with a form of bluetooth that conserves power so the app won't drain your battery and this log of proximity information will then be securely stored on your phone.
“If you become unwell with Covid-19 symptoms you inform the NHS via the app.
"Users who you've had significant contact with in the last few days will then be sent an alert by the NHS along with advice about what to do.
"A test ordering function will then be built-in.”
Related article: Scotland to launch a test, trace, isolate strategy to deal with Covid-19 coronavirus
