One solution found by governments worldwide is to maintain contact-tracing, that can help enable digital contact-tracing on a large scale. The British government revealed its first attempt at a contact-tracing app back on May 5. However, they recently admitted it as flawed, and said it would instead switch to a model being developed by tech mammoths Apple and Google.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, “We knew from the start that we would need to test and learn as we developed this new technology.” However, a long wait is to be expected.
How do contact tracing apps work?
A contact-tracing app is designed to let people know if they have been in close contact with someone who later reports positive for Covid-19. It could point exactly who needs to be in quarantine, and who does not. The purpose of the app is to try and track down people and alert them of the need to self-isolate father than traditional methods.
The apps keeps a trace of others who have been in close contact through Bluetooth signals that transmit an anonymous ID. These low energy Bluetooth signals perform a digital “handshake” when two users come into close contact, but keep that data anonymous. In case the individual later shows positive for the virus, the app will then ping a message to people who have been in close-contact with them in the last 28 days based on their anonymous IDs.
The app then recommends these people to self-isolate in case they have contracted the disease.
