Tracker app user got close contact notification nine days later

Tracker app user got close contact notification nine days later

The HSE has said that it is “aware that the app will have alerted a number of people that we don’t know about." File image. 

Doubts have been cast over the efficacy of the Covid Tracker app after it emerged a user had received a close contact notification nine days after the fact.

The woman in question, who is based in the west of the country, was first notified of her close contact on September 29. She received a test the following day, and was declared negative on October 1.

Her son, however, who was with her during the only excursion she made outside on September 20, does not have the Covid app. The woman’s GP said too long had passed for a test to be of any use, and declined to refer him for a test.

In testing and tracing terms three days is considered the limit for which the process of contact tracing can prove useful in suppressing the coronavirus. From that point of view, there was little useful purpose to the woman receiving a test so long after her close contact.

“It’s essentially useless taking a test that late,” her doctor said. “The time lag means there is minimal benefit to testing her now with a view to limiting spread as she has been behaving normally in the interim.

“It’s no one’s fault if the source patient has only just been confirmed as a case, but if the confirmation dates from many days ago it’s arguable the app has not proved fit for purpose on this occasion,” they added.

The woman said: “It was my first time looking at the app if I’m being honest, when it contacted me.

“My son was on the loose as it were because he doesn’t have the app. I told the test line as much but they said a test could only be prompted by contact with a doctor. I know it was 10 days but I was just trying to be responsible.”

The HSE has been contacted for comment on the matter.

At present 1,884 people have uploaded their positive status via the app, which subsequently leads to their contact ‘keys’ being cross-referenced with other app users, leading to a close contact notification with those people they have been in sustained contact with.

That upload can only happen once someone has tested positive for the virus.

The HSE has said that it is “aware that the app will have alerted a number of people that we don’t know about”.

A recent update to the app saw the removal of the percentage of people self-identifying as having no symptoms, a figure which had been hovering between 98% and 100% for some time despite the resurgence in cases.

“Users did not express an interest in maintaining this information,” a spokesperson said.

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