News has broke that the Government is considering using the Isle of Wight to trial their new test and trace programme, as well as a dedicated mobile app.
According to the Telegraph, officials are due to make a decision on whether to use the Island as a test bed for this next stage in the coronavirus battle.
On demand swab testing could be made available with teams of people tracing connections of those who have come into contact with confirmed coronavirus patients.
Islanders would be encouraged to download a dedicated smartphone app.
Commenting on the Contact-tracing and Testing story, Bob Seely MP said:
“I welcome the proposal, although clearly we are waiting for full details and confirmation of go-ahead.
“In conversations with Matt Hancock and Health Ministers recently and over the past few years, I have made the case for the Island piloting schemes, especially in ideas around telemedicine and the use of drones – to drive improvements in patient care.
“There is no question of ‘just’ lifting the lockdown. However, the elements for planning lockdown easing – as well as long-term Covid-19 suppression – can be put together on the Island prior to rolling out nationally.
Article continues below this advertisement “The lockdown is not a trade-off between lives v. the economy; it is between saving life now versus saving life later. We need to save life now, and this pilot scheme will make Islanders safer – but we also need to preserve life in future. The reality is that cancers are at risk of going undetected and heart conditions untreated. Failed business and bankruptcies will lead to stress and possibly a rise in suicides. Young people are being denied education and life chances are being undermined.
“We need to find a way out of the current situation. We need to start planning. The Government is doing the right thing and I believe that this pilot will help make the Island as well as the UK safer.
“I look forward to working with the Island’s Council and NHS, and the Government, to make this pilot scheme, if it goes ahead, a success in protecting the NHS and saving life.”
Further details are expected in the coming days.
Mobile COVID-19 testing returns to Medina Leisure Centre car park tomorrow (Wednesday) from 08:30.
I am a grey haired old wrinkley,from another era , wots a dedicated Smartphone App and how does one use it . is it a Posh Telephone ?
An app that most of our elderly will struggle to use? Will it just send a message to holiday makers that the island is safe so let’s rush over for a holiday?
Whwr can we find the latest figures for confirmed cases on the isle of wight
What a brilliant idea, let’s all get behind it.we will all benefit from this
No thanks.You would have to be an idiot to trust these people.
Virtually all mobile phones use Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android operating system.
In an unprecedented move both Apple and Google joined forces recently to create an app with anonymized and decentralised data to enable Covid-19 TRACING with the results decentralised to prevent TRACKING. The UK have dismissed this and are pushing forward with their own app that has a CENTRALISED database that could also be utilised to track individual phones.
How can a private tech company know iOS and Android better than the people who actually make it?
Also – how does the IoW as a test area account for people who do not have a smartphone (there are plenty of them) or will smartphones AND the app become compulsory?
Would people need the app to go out and about?
Would people have to show the app on demand? And if so to whom as powers are being given recently to those who never had such ‘authority’ before?
It’s worrying.
Emergency legislation went thru parlament with a nod & a wink weeks ago, devil’s in the detail,, all approved by Labour also,, big Brother is coming & you’re all bolloxed, We’ll be lie China before you know it, no app & QR code in phone & temperature scanners on all retail business premises dont want to, well no access then!!!!!
Great idea let’s get started
The majority of the Islanders are elderly, and dont even own a smartphone. Ridiculous !!!
The people you call ‘elderly’ are probably over 70, and 70+ people are likely to be in lockdown until a vaccine is brought into general use. So they won’t be roaming!
I am in my 60s, I don’t consider myself ‘elderly’, but will accept the term ‘older’! I have a smartphone. I regularly contact friends and family all over the world via FaceTime, WhatsApp and Skype, I attend virtual meetings and Pilates classes via Zoom. I say all this because I think I am pretty representative of the older people on the Island who WILL be out and about – and I will take part in any kind of trial that can help us all to beat COVID 19 … oh, and I also have my own teeth and hair!!
So it’s going to be anonymous, but there are already comments that ministers will be able, later, to vote that bit out. Who you are, where you’ve been, and who with, will become available to the Government, courtesy of American satellites. Not saying it’s a bad idea, and if it saves lives, then maybe that’s the price we have to pay.
There seems to be a pattern forming here, perhaps George Orwell was able to see the future.
Oh dear, here I go again
Older people should stay in lockdown anyway,. Economic hit involves those of working age, so those are priority with regards to the app.. there are those older people that take PRIDE in not understanding technology and smartphones.. with the greatest of respect to older people I just do not understand that mindset; if they were at school their homework would be marked could do better .
(incidentally I am 65
How on earth are thy gna knw ppl hav got the virus through a phone app… 5g bullshit we’re all fuked
Zoe I agree with you on that!
You wont get me down loading any App like that its just another way of them spying on you see how many time you go out where you go etc I always keep the location finder off of my mobile. why should we be used as guinea pigs
The only way this would work effectively is for everyone, not just key workers, but everyone, to be screened first. That would put a different perspective on things, including knowledge about how many of us have previously been infected.
They did this in South Korea and they state this is why they managed the virus much better.
It could be good, but I have never wanted a smartphone or anything where it is easier for people to hack into your device and trace everywhere you are, it seems an invasion of privacy, even though not doing anything wrong or illegal, it still seems invasive and I don’t want to be monitored everywhere I go . I guess people are more ready to accept this kind of thing though if they think it is for their own good, like how everyone accepts the surveillance more because they believe it protects us from terrorists and the like.
I wish there were just something dedicated only to this virus tracking and not be able to be used in any other way.
This is classic spyware – If the police or others wanted to know who you have been in contact with for other reasons – this is what it can be used for.
With an app like this, the state can tell precisely when you walked out of your front door, who you spent time in close proximity to, the details of those passing close by you, what routes you took (validated by CCTV in town areas) and what route you took to return home and when.
They can then tie this into your debit card transaction details, to see what you bought, at the shops your phone told them you were at.(no cash for those anonymous purchases)
A decent bit of spyware can access a phone microphone and thus allow the state to listen into your conversation as well as watch where you go and see what you buy.
Full on 24 hour surveillance, with the ability to track others with your phone app data and using that tracking data like a digital network of routes and people.
Sad, paranoid, chinese leaning, authoritarian jobsworths, who are so sad, they have to watch what others do, as they have no lives of their own.
I don’t think most people on here and in the U.K. have ever heard of social credit. Nothing to do with money. This is what China has in place, and reading the posts on here, it is going to be so easy for the government to apply it here. Madness! Social credit is all about tracking every aspect of your life. So many people say to me, why would they be interested in what I’m doing.? Because then they can mould you into what the Chinese have become, total slaves to the regime . E.g, if your a good citizen and does has he’s told, agrees with all the government says you get points. These points add up and you get privileges, you can go shop in the best shops, but if you haven’t been good, not so many points, you won’t be aloud to shop in nice places and the police will remove you. This is fact in China! And will be here very soon, because people are giving away the rights,scared of a virus that’s made to look like the plague. Fools.
Fake news?
To all the people saying “old folks don’t have smart phones”…in 2018 smartphone usage by 55-64 year olds was 71%. And most of those folks are even older now.
To those who worry about some government body tracking and tracing them for nefarious purposes…get over yourself, no one really cares that much unless you’re spreading disease.
We are very concerned about being used as a guinea pig, once again. Promises made over water meters were continually broken. Debates in House of Parliament over our ferries and ownership blurred, hospital Ward closures, with even some dementia care moved to the mainland, with little or no consultation etc., etc. Are we able to trust that what we being told to us is the whole truth? Is this the real reason that 200 extra beds were found at St. Mary’s hospital at such short notice, when we have been fighting bed closures for years. We are a holiday Island and need the Revenue it makes, being a pilot for ‘lockdown’ easement could easily backfire and we could find ourselves ‘outcasts’ with mainland people too frightened to visit us, whilst other tourists areas benefiting from our experience, flourish. Will the government promise to bail out our businesses if this happens?
What is the app called?
What is the app called?
Islander
Funny how we are not an ‘island ‘worth considering when it comes to subsidies on the island ferries from the government but we are just the right island when it comes to contained test cases . Is this to be followed by an early unlocking so we can be studied to see what happens to island residents.