Oxford researchers say contact-tracing app could curb spread of disease after lockdown

A Government Technology Agency (GovTech) staff demonstrates Singapore's new contact-tracing smarthphone app called TraceTogether, as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Singapore on March 20, 2020. - The mobile app using Bluetooth technology developed by GovTech in collaboration with the Ministry of Health informs user who had close contacts to confirmed coronavirus cases was launched in Singapore on 20. (Photo by Catherine LAI / AFP) (Photo by CATHERINE LAI/AFP via Getty Images)

An NHS contact-tracing app could significantly diminish the risk of a resurgence of Covid-19 cases when lockdown restrictions are lifted, according to new research.

New modelling by epidemiologists at Oxford University suggests the software would limit the number of transmissions caused by people who were not yet showing symptoms of the virus.

But the researchers, who are working with the health service’s tech unit NHSX on the project, cautioned that for the app to have the maximum impact, it would need to be adopted by 80 per cent of smartphone owners.

This is a significantly higher figure than those seen in other countries where contact-tracing apps have been rolled out. In Sinagpore, for example, adoption is at just 12 per cent.