Boris Johnson has been confronted over his claim that no country has a working contact-tracing app, after 12m downloads were made in Germany.
Keir Starmer ridiculed the prime minister for denying the UK had been left in the slow lane – after his plans for an app were abandoned – telling him Berlin’s was in operation on 15 June.
“Other countries are ahead of us. When are we going to have a working app?” the Labour leader demanded to know.
Download the new Independent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
Mr Johnson provoked astonishment on Tuesday when he claimed no other country had stolen a march with the technology.
In fact, France, Australia, Singapore and Latvia are among other countries that have launched an app, although uptake has been fairly low in some of those countries.
The prime minister is under pressure after the embarrassment of ditching plans for a custom-made NHS app – after £12m was spent on it – because of technical problems.
The UK is now seeking to adopt an existing model in cooperation with Apple and Google, despite previously ruling that out – and delaying introduction until “the winter”.
Put on the spot, Mr Johnson claimed the app had only ever been imagined as “the icing on the cake”, although health secretary Matt Hancock repeatedly argued it was essential to preventing infection spikes.
And, despite apps being used in numerous countries, he insisted: “If we can get it to work it'll be a fine thing, but there isn't one anywhere in the world so far.”
Shape Created with Sketch. Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside Show all 18 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Care home hit by coronavirus: A rare glimpse of life inside 1/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 2/18 Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, wearing PPE before going into rooms Tom Maddick/SWNS 3/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, speaks to a carer at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 4/18 Carers working at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 5/18 A care worker wearing PPE opens a drink carton Tom Maddick/SWNS 6/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, sits with a carer Tom Maddick/SWNS 7/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS 8/18 A care staff member wearing PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS 9/18 A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home looks after a resident SWNS 10/18 A carer wearing PPE uses a speaker Tom Maddick/SWNS 11/18 A carer helps Jack Dodsley, 79, from his chair Tom Maddick/SWNS 12/18 A carer wearing PPE helps Jack Dodsley, 79 Tom Maddick/SWNS 13/18 A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 14/18 A carer brings food to a resident at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 15/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS 16/18 A staff member puts on PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 17/18 Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, puts on PPE before she enters a room SWNS 18/18 A bench at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 1/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 2/18 Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, wearing PPE before going into rooms Tom Maddick/SWNS 3/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, speaks to a carer at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 4/18 Carers working at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 5/18 A care worker wearing PPE opens a drink carton Tom Maddick/SWNS 6/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, sits with a carer Tom Maddick/SWNS 7/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS 8/18 A care staff member wearing PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS 9/18 A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home looks after a resident SWNS 10/18 A carer wearing PPE uses a speaker Tom Maddick/SWNS 11/18 A carer helps Jack Dodsley, 79, from his chair Tom Maddick/SWNS 12/18 A carer wearing PPE helps Jack Dodsley, 79 Tom Maddick/SWNS 13/18 A staff member at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 14/18 A carer brings food to a resident at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 15/18 Jack Dodsley, 79, with a carer in PPE Tom Maddick/SWNS 16/18 A staff member puts on PPE at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS 17/18 Jackie Wilson, a healthcare assistant, puts on PPE before she enters a room SWNS 18/18 A bench at Newfield Nursing Home Tom Maddick/SWNS
Speaking afterwards, a Labour spokesman said: “If you want other examples, Singapore has launched an app, South Korea has also got an app. So there are a number of countries that are far, far ahead of us.”
Inside Politics newsletter The latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox Enter your email address Continue Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid Email already exists. Log in to update your newsletter preferences Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive updates on politics every morning by email Update newsletter preferences
And Martin Hibberd, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, also criticized Mr Johnson, saying: “There are a number of countries with a working contact-tracing app, for example Singapore’s ‘Trace Together’ which has been working since March and has been downloaded by nearly half the population.
“To be most effective, most people need to use them and that seems difficult for many places. However, even at lower rates of adoption they can still play an important part in helping to control the virus.”
The two leaders also clashed over the physical test-and-trace system, Sir Keir claiming two-thirds of Covid-19 cases were not being successfully contacted.
“The prime minister risks making the mistakes he made at the beginning of the pandemic, brushing aside challenge, dashing forward, not estimating properly the risks,” he warned.
“If two-thirds of those with Covid-19 are not being contacted that is a big problem, because if we don't get track, trace and isolate properly running we can't open the economy, we can't prevent infection spreading.”
He added: “What is the government's strategy for closing the gap between the number of people with Covid-19 and those going into the system, not what happens to those that go into the system?”
But Mr Johnson replied: “The 33,000 cases in the country is, of course, an estimate.
“What NHS test and-trace is doing is contacting the vast majority of those who test positive and their own contacts and getting them to self-isolate, and it is a formidable achievement.”
HansWurst52684 on June 24th, 2020 at 15:38 UTC »
For those that question the German app for data security. The app does not send any location data to servers. It periodically searches through Bluetooth other phones and saves the result for 2 weeks. When the owner of the phone tests positive, the app sends a message to all contacts it had. Even the CCC (chaos computer club, a very tradicional 'hacker club' ), a fierce defender of data security, had nothing to criticise about the apps security. The source code is open source, the information decentralised and the contacts are saved with keys.
Edit: when you get tested positiv for coronavirus, your app - key gets published on a server. Every app looks whether it was in contact with this key. If it was the app warns its user. It is a very safe and decentralised system.
Edit2: you do not provide your app key automatically. Providing the key in case of you being yested positiv, is voluntary.
pahag on June 24th, 2020 at 14:42 UTC »
We had one in Norway, and a large part of the population downloaded the app. (It records who you meet and if they later are infected you will be notified that “someone you have been in contact with have tested positive” (not who, where or when). However, our national data monitoring authority (responsible for GDPR) said it was a challenge for privacy, so most people deleted the apps.
King_of_Argus on June 24th, 2020 at 14:03 UTC »
He could just try to pay the licensing fees and launch it in the UK as well. I think SAP would be happy to export this app.