Shadow Health Minister, Angela Burns MS, has emphasised the value of new technology and smart phone apps as the battle to defeat Covid-19 progresses.
She reiterated her call after the First Minister highlighted their usefulness during his briefing today (June 8).
A number of apps are in use as the UK – including one developed by King’s College London and healthcare science company, ZOE – to help track the disease more effectively and trace people that those infected may have come into contact with.
Basic demographic questions are asked to set the app up, and users are then encouraged to log in every day to answer two questions regarding whether they have been diagnosed with Covid and whether they are feeling ill. Currently over 100,000 people in Wales have signed up to use this app.
Mrs Burns said
“In such difficult times it is vital that we embrace the amazing technology that is available to help us learn more about this disease and find the best way forward in tackling it.
“The Covid Symptom tracking app which is free to download and very easy to use. Once set it up, it takes less than a minute a day to enter information into and it can be used to record information for all persons in your household.
“The more information that is gathered, the more valuable the data the scientists working to defeat this virus have to work with. I encourage people of all ages to download and make use of this and contribute to help defeat this disease.
“The app is available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play from the links at covid.joinzoe.com.”