COVID-19 Test and trace App

The report is literally from "close contact". Bluetooth scanning works by identifying if you've been in close contact with someone (generally within 2 metres of them for 15 minutes or more) who has developed Covid symptoms and/or needs to self isolate. In that respect it's the more useful part of the app. A QR code is scanned in places where people tend to meet, like a café or a coffee shop, and can be used to identify a potential virus outbreak hotspot.

That's why you're told to switch the Bluetooth scanning off in a hospital, otherwise with the best will in the world you'd be getting pinged constantly. But out and about outside of work, it's the bit that can save you from having to self isolate when you perhaps don't actually need to, because you've not been in close enough contact with someone for it to actually matter.
 
I just had a look at the info on how it works. The app logs every other phone with the app active that comes in range at any time, and if you then go down with the bug and update your phone app accordingly, it then goes through the list of phones and alerts their users. They can of course ignore the alert and carry on regardless.
When you scan the qr code on the way into the venue, it assumes you left at midnight if you don't scan yourself in somewhere else before then. If your time in a venue appears to coincide with that of an infected person, then human tracers look at the case and 'evaluate the risk level to decide whether you need to be sent an alert with advice etc.
 
Lorcan said:
The report is literally from "close contact". Bluetooth scanning works by identifying if you've been in close contact with someone (generally within 2 metres of them for 15 minutes or more) who has developed Covid symptoms and/or needs to self isolate. In that respect it's the more useful part of the app. A QR code is scanned in places where people tend to meet, like a café or a coffee shop, and can be used to identify a potential virus outbreak hotspot.

That's why you're told to switch the Bluetooth scanning off in a hospital, otherwise with the best will in the world you'd be getting pinged constantly. But out and about outside of work, it's the bit that can save you from having to self isolate when you perhaps don't actually need to, because you've not been in close enough contact with someone for it to actually matter.
Click to expand...
I totally understand how the blue tooth works and it makes total sense. The unreliable part of that equation is me, failing to turn it on again when I leave work!


Qualcast&Flymo said:
When you scan the qr code on the way into the venue, it assumes you left at midnight if you don't scan yourself in somewhere else before then. If your time in a venue appears to coincide with that of an infected person, then human tracers look at the case and 'evaluate the risk level to decide whether you need to be sent an alert with advice etc.
Click to expand...
This is the bit that troubles me. If I scan in to a venue at 10 and scan nowhere else and infected person scans in at 2, (or sign in if there is no app), how is it determined whether I was there? I’m reassured if there is a conversation about it and a risk assessment but I feel that conversation needs to be with me, rather than an overview by a stranger if that makes sense.

I guess the key is the Bluetooth pinging. No ping, no problem. The app is supposed to remind me to turn it on again but that bit doesn’t seem to work for me just now. I’m getting messages from dominos pizza every 2 minutes but not the nhs 😂
 
Tigermoth said:
I totally understand how the blue tooth works and it makes total sense. The unreliable part of that equation is me, failing to turn it on again when I leave work!


This is the bit that troubles me. If I scan in to a venue at 10 and scan nowhere else and infected person scans in at 2, (or sign in if there is no app), how is it determined whether I was there? I’m reassured if there is a conversation about it and a risk assessment but I feel that conversation needs to be with me, rather than an overview by a stranger if that makes sense.

I guess the key is the Bluetooth pinging. No ping, no problem. The app is supposed to remind me to turn it on again but that bit doesn’t seem to work for me just now. I’m getting messages from dominos pizza every 2 minutes but not the nhs 😂
Click to expand...

Could you set a reminder on your phone? I know shift work doesn't usually mean you can make regular alarms, so it'd take an extra couple of minutes each time, but you could set an alarm to remind you to turn it on first thing in the morning, then set reminders for when you know your shift ends?

OR, because I'd forget to do even that, you could write "SWITCH ON BLUETOOTH" on a piece of paper, take a photograph of it, and use that photo as your phone wallpaper. Reminder every time you look at your phone!
 
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