The National Health Service (NHS) is launching an app which warns you if you come too close to someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. 

According to reports, the contacts tracking app, will detect people with Covid-19 using short-range Bluetooth signals and subsequently alert those nearby.

This is coming after the Covid-19 death toll in England jumped by 367 in one day alone; taking the UK total to 1,815.

According to Sky News, “NHS chiefs are hoping the app will attract more than 50 per cent of the population – as large numbers of people using it together will be necessary for it to work effectively.

NHSX, the NHS England innovation unit leading the project have just recently agreed on key technical details about the app.

According to a source, “It is believed the app will find other phones nearby using short-range Bluetooth signals, then store a record of those contacts on the device.

“Then, if someone tests positive for Covid-19, they will be able to upload those contacts, who can then be alerted – after a suitable delay, to avoid accidentally identifying an individual – via the app,” it said.

The NHSX plan to organize a board to oversee the running of this project.

Meanwhile, private campaigners and data protection advocates have raised concerns about the app’s safeguard and the independence of the board in charge of the project.

As of last week, a group of “responsible technologists” issued an open letter to the CEO of NHSX and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

In the letter, they warned that “location and contact tracking technology could be used as a means of social control”.

According to Sky News, the responsible group had published the letter in response to the early phase of the development of the app.

The early phase of the development of the app was first designed to be used during the “containment” phase of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

When speaking about the app, a source who observed work on the app during this period characterised it as a “hot mess” run by “a hodge-podge of suppliers and contractors” with “no clear voices in the room speaking to the privacy implications of the technology they were using.”

In a bid to convince the privacy community, NHSX held an online meeting yesterday with a group of NGOs, some of the signatories of the open letter inclusive.

Singapore had also developed their own app called TraceTogether and has been downloaded over 800,000.

The app which is a bluetooth-powered app has helped Singapore curtail the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

The UK version follows the example set by TraceTogether to help with the increasing spread of the virus in the UK. The Irish government is aiming to build a similar app.

Alternatively, in South Korea sends details of infected people’s age, gender and most recent location to anyone within 100 metres via text message.