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Analysis

COVID-19: The value of the NHS app is low and getting lower as more people are fully vaccinated

Public confidence is waning as more people turn off the contact-tracing function of the NHS COVID-19 app to avoid getting pinged.

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COVID cases at their highest in people in 20s
Why you can trust Sky News

As cases soar in this third wave of coronavirus, you would expect the number of people identified as contacts to also rise.

The latest data on the COVID-19 app certainly shows more people than ever are being pinged, with a 17% rise since last week.

But analysis by Sky News suggests the app is doing what it is designed to do. Contacts are increasing in step with cases.

Govt 'very concerned' as more than 600,000 pinged in a week
Govt 'very concerned' as more than 600,000 pinged in a week

The North East of England, a hotspot for infections, also has the highest number of contacts identified through the app.

Some businesses are being severely disrupted, so are the right people being pinged?

When the app was first launched last year, 6% of people who were pinged went on to develop symptoms.

In three months it prevented almost 600,000 cases.

More on Covid-19

Rosi Stamp, aged 25, receives a Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at an NHS Vaccination Clinic at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London.
Image: Most fully vaccinated Britons will have to wait until 16 August before they can avoid self-isolating if they are pinged

But that was before the vaccine.

Now more than 69% of adults are double-jabbed.

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Government 'very concerned' about 'pingdemic'

After two doses, the Pfizer jab is 88% effective at preventing symptomatic disease, the AstraZeneca vaccine a little less.

So fully jabbed people who are pinged are much less likely to develop COVID-19.

The government's due to announce that some essential workers will no longer need to isolate if they've had both doses and they test negative.

Supermarkets experience shortages amid 'pingdemic'
Supermarkets experience shortages amid 'pingdemic'

The rest of us will have to wait until 16 August.

But the value of the app is already low and it's getting lower as more people are double jabbed.

With public confidence waning, and more people turning off the contact-tracing function, the government's determination to stick to the date will come under increasing pressure.