The NHS in the UK has decided to forgo designs by Google and Apple on tracking coronavirus, choosing to use a centralized app instead.
Developers have created a number of apps in helping people combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some apps list symptoms and offer the latest statistics, but others are more ambitious. The NHS in the UK is launching an app for contact-tracing individuals who have contracted coronavirus. However, the agency is going in a different direction than that suggested by Apple and Google.
Centralized Coronavirus Tracking
The app released by the NHS is for the iPhone, and it will alert users when they come into proximity with people who have been infected with COVID-19. The NHS says the app works “sufficiently well” on the iPhone, and it does not require the app to be active or on-screen to function. Even better is that the app does not have a major impact on the iPhone’s battery life.
When a person uses the app and registers themselves to be infected with COVID-19, alerts are automatically sent out to people they have had contact with. This is achieved by using the mobile device’s tracking features.
Apple and Google suggested an app that is decentralized in order to protect the privacy of users. However, the NHS decided to go with using a centralized database on its own server. It should be noted that any alerts sent out do not identify the person who caused the alert in the first place.
The NHS believes that using a centralized database will allow the agency to better track the spread of COVID-19 cases. Professor Christophe Fraser, an epidemiologist advising the NHSX, the digital innovation unit for the NHS, says, “One of the advantages is that it’s easier to audit the system and adapt it more quickly as scientific evidence accumulates. The principal aim is to give notifications to people who are most at risk of having got infected, and not to people who are much lower risk. It’s probably easier to do that with a centralized system.”
COVID-19 in the UK
The UK is currently under lockdown in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Boris Johnson instituted the restrictions late last month. People are only allowed to leave their homes in order to shop for basic necessities, get one form of exercise per day, work in a vital industry, and for medical services.
There has been a total of 165,221 reported cases of coronavirus in the UK with 26,097 deaths. Such numbers mean the UK ranks fifth in the world when it comes to reported cases and third when it comes to deaths. (It should be noted that most experts agree that the numbers given by the Chinese government are not accurate.)
Images courtesy of Pixabay.
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