Wales doesn’t have English Covid-19 NHS app test problems, Health Minister says

Wales doesn’t have the issues faced in England with the new NHS Covid-19 app where people have been unable to input test results, the Health Minister has said.

In England, some test results cannot currently be linked with the app whether they’re positive or negative.

Users have also faced an issue in England where they have only received a code to register test results where the test is positive, leaving people unable to stop a self-isolation countdown.

A spokesperson for the app said that if your test took place in a Public Health England lab or NHS hospital, or as part of national surveillance testing conducted by the Office for National Statistics, you coud not enter the test results.

Wales’ Health Minister Vaughan Gething however said that this issue had been avoided in Wales. He called for those who were saying that the app were “useless” to “calm down”.

‘More people’

“Thanks to NHS Wales Informatics Service, tests in Public Health Wales labs are integrated into the app with lighthouse lab results,” he said. “Please carry on using it.”

Ifan Evans, health director for digital technology and transformation in Wales, tweeted that Welsh lab test results did come with notification tokens for the app.

It is the ‘token’ provided by Public Health Wales to enter into the app that is currently missing on Public Health England lab or NHS hospital results.

The app [iOS / Android] launches yesterday after trials and will according to the Welsh Government be a “useful tool when used alongside Wales’ successful manual contact tracing system”.

“The launch of the NHS COVID-19 app is an important part of Wales’ coronavirus response, supporting the NHS Wales Test, Trace, Protect programme,” Wales’ Health Minister Vaughan Gething said.

“The more people who download and use this app, the more it will help us to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

The UK Government’s Department for Health and Social Care said the app would be updated to resolve issues with not being able to include negative test results in England.