The Department of Health in the UK made it known that users had been unable to record a positive test result if they had booked a test somewhere else rather than via the NHS COVID-19 mobile application can now log their status however they booked the test.
But there are still those who tested negative and are unable to log their result in the application or share the result if they did not book the test through the application.
The way this works was that those who booked to be tested through the application would usually get their result auto-logged be it positive or negative onto the system based on what the body in charge of the service said. Meanwhile tests taken as a result of Office for National Statistics surveys and also those in the possession of the NHS Hospital or Public Health England lab were said to bot be able to be shared on the application no matter the result of the test being carried out.
But on Saturday, the Department of Health made it known that anyone who accesses a test elsewhere will be able to log their result if they are positive to COVID-19 and will receive a code in which they can input right into the application.
But those that gets these codes are patients who have tested positive but those who enter based on grounds of exhibiting symptoms without entering their test results will get the self-isolation countdown starting on them to know how long they need to stay isolated before getting themselves integrated back into the society.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said that “everyone who receives a positive test result can log their result on the app”. “A minority of people, such as hospital patients, who were unable to log their positive result can now request a code when contacted by NHS Test and Trace to input on their app,” the spokeswoman said. The ability to log a negative result is being looked into, she added, after user feedback suggested people wanted the ability to do so.
The app had gotten a 4 million downloads
Since the release of the application on Thursday, there have been a lot of people who have already booked tests even before downloading the application and they have reported to being unable to halt the self-isolation countdown after they reported their symptoms even when they got a negative result since this doesn’t come with a code unlike the positive case which could have been logged into the system and then stop the countdown timer.
Prof Deborah Ryan, who originally contacted the BBC, said: “That’s so confusing as the app doesn’t tell you that can’t enter a negative test booked outside it.”
And the app still tells you to quarantine if you entered symptoms. So this means I can’t turn off the self-isolation alert in the app?” In that ground, user will be unable to stop the self-isolation alert.
Meanwhile in Wales, lab test results are said to come with notification tokes for the app and even the Health director for digital technology and transformation, Ifan Evans tweeted .
The Department of Health has said that using the app is “entirely voluntary” and advice to get a test or self-isolate cannot be enforced.Tests booked via the app will have the results automatically shared with it, it said. According to the data analyst App Annie, the NHS Covid-19 app has been downloaded around 4million times so far.
“By downloading this app you are helping protect yourself and others. If you book your test via the app then the results will be automatically recorded in the app and the isolation countdown will be updated,” said a DHSC spokesman. If you are asked to self-isolate for 14 days because you have been in close contact with somebody who has tested positive, you are advised by health officials to do so even if you later test negative yourself.
