Pingdemic
According to a survey, residents who have been pinged by the NHS app in England and Wales are up to four times more likely to have COVID-19 than someone who isn't alerted.
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Contributors to the Zoe COVID symptom study shared that those told to isolate had a 3.7 to 4.0 relative risk of testing positive, the survey was conducted on more than 750,000 participants.
In Scotland, it was reportedly even higher, and people pinged by the country's app were 10 times more likely to have the virus. The Protest Scotland app was also discovered to be more concise at alerting positive-testing people than its Welsh and English equivalents.
The 'pingdemic' has caused problems in many industries as workers are required to quarantine at home, but last week the number of alerts sent fell 20%. Starting Monday, fully vaccinated people will no longer have to isolate when alerted by the app as a close contact of a COVID case.
More likely to be infected
On the contrary, people in the same group who had at least one symptom were 11.7 times more likely to be infected. The results of the study suggest a 'large number' of people without COVID are being told to isolate by the apps.
Younger folks who were alerted were also found to be more likely to test positive compared with older groups. Also, unvaccinated individuals who were pinged were much more likely to have COVID than people with one or both jabs.
Professor Tim Spector, lead scientist of Zoe study, said the findings also show it's important for people to remain careful and get tested if they feel unwell in anyway.
While I welcome efforts to address the pingdemic, cases are still very high and our research shows that whatever your vaccination status, if you have one of possible 20-plus COVID symptoms recognised by Zoe, not just the classic three, you should be cautious, self-isolate and get a test.
Which makes it even more important for the government to expand the symptom list to help people understand all the symptoms of COVID-19.
This rapid analysis is proof that the Zoe COVID Study is in a unique position to gather data and continue to monitor the effectiveness of contact tracing apps.
With access to nearly a million weekly contributors we can ask questions at a huge scale and get answers fast.
