UK Health Secretary: New NHS app for contact tracing in development

As coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the United Kingdom, the government has announced that a new NHS app for contact tracing is being developed. While addressing the daily coronavirus briefing, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that ‘new step’ will help content he further spread of the deadly virus. The UK government is doing everything to overcome COVID-19 pandemic, meanwhile, the country has reported nearly 84,000 confirmed cases and the deadly virus has claimed more than 10,000. 

Hancock said, “Today, I wanted to outline the next step, a new NHS app for contact tracing. If you become unwell with the symptoms of coronavirus you can securely tell this new NHS app. The app will then send an alert anonymously to other app users you've been in significant contact with over the last few days, even before you've had symptoms, so that they know and they can act accordingly. We are already testing this app.”

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He further also informed that the country also has ‘spare capacity’ for critical care. He said the UK has more than 2,200 spare critical care beds available, therefore, everyone can get the care they need. However, he was unable to expand on the number of deaths of NHS workers, although, the authorities are looking into ‘each circumstance’ to find how they picked up the virus. 

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UK pledges £200 million to charities

Furthermore, the UK has also pledged an additional sum of £200 million to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other charities to help slow the spread of the novel Coronavirus in vulnerable countries. The amount is aimed at accelerating the response efforts to stem the second-wave of COVID-19 resurgence. The United Nations' (UN) agencies such as WHO, Red Cross, and Charities in the homeland and overseas are among the organisations the government donated an additional package of £ 200 million funds under the UK aid scheme, International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a statement.

As per the release, " package of £200 million will back UK charities and international organizations to help reduce mass infections in developing countries which often lack the healthcare systems to track and halt the virus.”

(Image source: AP) 

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