Poll: One in five adults in UK removed NHS Covid app

A NEW poll has revealed that one in five adults of all ages in the UK have deleted the NHS Covid-19 app from their phone, reported The Guardian.

The report added that more younger people have removed the track and trace app to avoid self-isolation. 

More than a third of people aged between 18 and 34 years in the UK have deleted the app already, the poll by Savanta ComRes has found out.

Besides, a third of those who do have the app is planning to delete it in six days. Among adults of all ages, that proportion was about 20 per cent, it added. 

As many as 2,137 UK adults aged 18 years and older have participated in the poll online between 9 and 11 July.

Last week, opposition politicians expressed concern that many people might choose to delete the app in case an increase in infections linked to the lifting of many restrictions on Monday (19).

“We know both that the number of people downloading the NHS Covid-19 app was never as high as desired and that some people who downloaded it have already deleted it,” Prof Henry Potts, of University College London, who specialises in the use of technology in healthcare, told The Guardian. 

“Anecdotally, many people turn it off or do not use it as directed. This all reduces the potential efficacy of the app. What will happen is that the more the app presents an inconvenience for people and the more they see Covid-19 as less of an issue, then the more likely they will be to stop using the app.”

He urged ministers to overhaul and put greater resources into the testing, tracing and isolating system.

Prof Potts pointed out that other nations that had done so had avoided the long national lockdowns seen in the UK.