The tracking app shows that lockdown is having a positive impact and that Covid was spreading since January.
Who would have thought that Covid was spreading in the UK since January? A new tracking app shows Covid-19 spread through the UK long before the first person was confirmed to have the disease. The Covid-19 symptom tracker currently asks 2.6 million users to share how they’re feeling and any symptoms every day, even if they are well.
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Covid was spreading since January in the UK
According to Tim Spector, Professor Genetic Epidemiology at King’s and scientist working on the app that hundreds of respondents have the feeling of Covid-19 symptoms in January, even though this is still unconfirmed.
Scientists at King’s College London designed the tracking app with the hope of helping the UK fight the disease. The app also suggests the lockdown has had a significant positive impact. Estimated cases are down by 80% today to 354,690 compared with 2.1 million on April 1, which, it is believed, was the peak. Scientists estimated the virus was spreading around the UK from around mid-January.
Between January 1 and 24, there were 17 direct flights from Wuhan to the UK and many more from Italy. Another technology is The NHS’s own digital arm, NHSX, which is working on a tracker that will alert users if they have come into contact with people who have then developed symptoms. It will apparently be ready to use within weeks but will rely on 60 percent of the population downloading it to be fully effective.
The tracking app will ask how the users feeling every day, whether they have had a test, where they are based and if they say they’re not feeling well, what their symptoms are. The Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons, NHS Scotland and NHS Wales have all endorsed the app. NHS England have not, but this may be because they are waiting to endorse the upcoming NHSX app.
