THE official Coronavirus app was finally launched yesterday, months after it was supposed to be released.
Available for iPhone and Android – the ‘NHS Covid-19’ app will send alerts based on locations, allow people to book tests if they have symptoms and can be used as a scanner to check-in at venues.
Restaurants, bars and other leisure facilities should, by law, display authorised QR barcodes on a poster or digital sign, which the app can scan.
The app, which launched on September 24 following extensive testing, will send updates on your postcode’s ‘risk level’ and instructs users to self-isolate for 14 days if it detects they are or were nearby someone who has the virus.
Strangers can alert other people living nearby if they have tested positive.
The UK’s major mobile network operators, including Vodafone, Three, EE and O2, Sky and Virgin, have confirmed that all in-app activity will not come out of customers’ data allowance.
The tool, which can be downloaded from app stores, does not work on iPhone 6 or older models.
Businesses are now required by law to display NHS Test and Trace QR code posters so customers with the NHS Covid-19 app can use it to check-in to venues.
So far, more than 90,000 businesses have already downloaded QR codes.
The app has been through successful trials in the Isle of Wight, Newham and among NHS Volunteer Responders and lessons learned have informed the final version that is launching today.
Droitwich’s MP Nigel Huddleston, who is also the Minister for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, welcomed the app’s arrival.
He said: “The new NHS Covid-19 app will be an important tool for helping to reduce the spread of the virus.
“I have downloaded the app and am now using it.
“I would urge all my constituents to please do the same to help protect themselves and their loved ones.”
