The government has announced that their new contact-tracing app for coronavirus will be launched from 24th September across England and Wales. The app will allow people to scan QR codes to register their visits to hospitality venues, such as restaurants, libraries and leisure centres, and it will utilise Google and Apple’s methods of detecting other smartphones. This scheme will require businesses to display QR code posters around their venues to help support the app. The app seems promising with the UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, deeming the launch as a “defining moment”.
A prototype of the NHS app was trialled earlier this spring in the Isle of Wight, but this was abandoned. Some restaurants have already been using QR based track and trace systems in the UK, and they will be asked to use the new app once it is launched. Any venue where people gather for more than 15 minutes will be asked to provide QR code posters with those attending these venues using the app. If attendees do not have mobile phones, pen and paper registers will still be used.
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