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More than 16,000 people have already downloaded Jersey's official contact tracing app, with the team behind it setting an ambitious target to get at least half of the population using it.
Launched yesterday morning, the free app notifies users if they have been with 2m of someone who has covid for more than 15 minutes over the previous two weeks. If they have, they are asked to get in touch with the island’s contact tracing team.
The Government says that if 15% of islanders who are regularly out and about download and use the app, which has cost £244,000 to launch, it will have an impact on the ability of the virus to spread within the community.
However, the more people who use it, the greater that impact. And the Government wants to be the first jurisdiction in the British Isles - and possibly the world - to have more than 50% of its population using a contact tracing app.
Pictured: Digital Jersey CEO Tony Moretta and Justice and Home Affairs Director General Julian Blazeby at the contact tracing app launch.
If uptake reaches 70% of our 'active' population using the app, that could actually neutralise the pandemic, according to a study by Oxford University referenced by the Government.
That same study says that a 15% uptake can reduce infections by 15% and deaths by 11%.
Looking other places when the same app has been used, in the Republic of Ireland, more than 25% of the population download the app in 36 hours after launch in July.
In Scotland, 22% of the active population download the app within a week, while in Northern Ireland, 300,000 people downloaded it in the first month.
Pictured: The number of downloads has topped 10,000.
Jersey's Government is at pains to stress that the app is voluntary, no personal data needs to be entered and there is no ability to track the phone. The identity of the user is never shared, and it requires the person to physically get in touch with the contact tracing team. The underlying programming code is publicly available, and an advisory board has been established to monitor further developments.
Deputy Medical Officer for Health Dr Ivan Muscat, the medic leading Jersey's pandemic strategy, said: “If as many of us as possible download the app and use it alongside all our other defences such our current contact tracing, good hand respiratory and touch point hygiene, appropriate physical distancing and the appropriate use of face coverings in indoor public spaces, then we will be better able to protect individuals, families and our community.
“Test and trace is one of the most important elements of our defence system. It allows us to focus our attention on isolating individuals rather than implementing restrictions at societal levels.
“This reduces the risk of spread and reduces unnecessary inconvenience to our way of island life. The expansion of asymptomatic screening across the workforce will be hugely complemented by this additional tracing system.”
Pictured: How Jersey's contact tracing app was developed.
Digital Jersey Chief Executive Tony Moretta, who led a team that identified and adapted the Irish-developed app, said: "I'd like to make sure we get up to 50% of the population and even higher. Jersey has already shown its community spirit in its response to Covid and I think we will, again, prove that togetherness with this app.
"But it's important to stress that its use is a complementary approach and in support of other measures: it doesn’t replace checks at venues or scanning in a QR code and it is most effective when it works alongside those solutions.
“Anonymous alerts are triggered instantaneously by the infected person, who has entered a code given by the contact tracing team, which allows exposed people to take action faster to limit onward transmission.
“The Bluetooth signal will also pick up nearby app users that you don’t know – perhaps on the bus or in the coffee shop – or can’t remember or forgotten about.”
“The app won’t tell you to isolate – that will be up to the contact tracing team, who will then tell you what to do, as they do right now. Because it is anonymous, it can't track someone's movements, and all data is deleted after 14 days, we think it addresses any privacy concerns that people might have."
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