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What do you think about ‘pings’ because of the Track and Trace App?

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johnnychips

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This has been mentioned in several threads, but there isn’t really a unifying one.

Apparently a lot of businesses are having problems because so many of their staff are being told to self-isolate because of the Track and Trace app, even though most of them show no symptoms, and if tested, it is a very low percentage.

Any thoughts?
 
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TPO

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Yeah.

Pinged = you are not obliged to isolate, if you've had the jab and choose to take time off we don't pay you.

Contacted by tract & trace = we pay your wages whilst you isolate.

Might stop the ping-seekers for whom it is a source of time off (yes I have come across people of that ilk who seek out barcodes at every possible opportunity to increase their chance of being pinged).

TPO
 

Smidster

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I have never had cause for the app, and won't be starting now, so have never been "pinged" - it always felt like one of those things where nothing good could happen and I am not sure if would do my Mental Health much good to worry about the times you may have been a contact.

In terms of the app itself it's main weakness is that it lacks the context that is so crucial in determining if being close to someone is actually a source of concern like if there was an actual interaction between people, what was the ventilation like etc.

From others the timings also seem a bit silly at times with people being pinged for like 24 hours at the end of a 10 period which can't be very effective.
 

PHILIPE

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The Government won't back down and are still stressing the importance of the App to keep cases down according to News tonight
 

johnnychips

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The Government won't back down and are still stressing the importance of the App to keep cases down according to News tonight
Yes, but I do wonder if there is a difference between those who would still get paid if they were off and had to work from home - that would be me - and those who would lose money if they had to self- isolate.

Pardon me if I am being thick, but if you get pinged by being, for example, near someone in a shop, do you have to self-isolate? Or is it up to your employer policy?
 

AlterEgo

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This has been mentioned in several threads, but there isn’t really a unifying one.

Apparently a lot of businesses are having problems because so many of their staff are being told to self-isolate because of the Track and Trace app, even though most of them show no symptoms, and if tested, it is a very low percentage.

Any thoughts?
Yeah. Delete the app. It’s useless.
 

Tezza1978

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Have kept the app previously to check in to venues but have - always, since day 1 - turned the Bluetooth part off so I don't get pinged, would only get notifications if a venue I was at had an outbreak.
Sunday night - its getting deleted and my wife will delete hers too. I'm double jabbed and wife has her 2nd on Saturday
 

Freightmaster

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This has been mentioned in several threads, but there isn’t really a unifying one.

Apparently a lot of businesses are having problems because so many of their staff are being told to self-isolate because of the Track and Trace app, even though most of them show no symptoms, and if tested, it is a very low percentage.

Any thoughts?
As others have said, why on earth are the staff in customer-facing businesses using the app in the first place
when they are bound to get 'pinged' sooner or later??




MARK
 

DelayRepay

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As others have said, why on earth are the staff in customer-facing businesses using the app in the first place
when they are bound to get 'pinged' sooner or later??

I'm not customer facing, and I WFH at the moment, but I have thousands of customer facing colleagues and this app is causing chaos throughout our company.

However, the problem is that when the app was launched, our senior management encouraged everyone to download it. So quite difficult to backtrack now I think.
 

Tracked

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The Government won't back down and are still stressing the importance of the App to keep cases down according to News tonight
That's working well, I expect a lot of people won't bother with it after Sunday, possibly a good thing now we're getting to the point where businesses/public services are struggling to operate :s

When I saw the news about 520,000 people being pinged in the last week I did wonder how many of those actually went on to actually have it.
 
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I'm glad of this thread. My colleague was pinged on Thursday night ( no symptoms and he doesn't know anyone who has tested positive lately) and had to take the day off to have a test of which he hopefully will get the result today.
The issue I have as his boss is he still has to isolate for 10 days regardless and the company won't pay him for doing nothing at home and threatened SSP, (there's very little he can do at home as we are a facilities team) Eveyone else in the company bar our team is s still working from home so even if they were pinged they can still carry on which I think is deeply unfair.

Thankfully I haven't got the app but I've been advised by a doctor I know not to go to pub or anything or meet anyone elderly until he's had his result. Is that overkill as I feel fine.

Just want this nightmare to end!!
 

GB

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I'm glad of this thread. My colleague was pinged on Thursday night ( no symptoms and he doesn't know anyone who has tested positive lately) and had to take the day off to have a test of which he hopefully will get the result today.
The issue I have as his boss is he still has to isolate for 10 days regardless and the company won't pay him for doing nothing at home and threatened SSP, (there's very little he can do at home as we are a facilities team) Eveyone else in the company bar our team is s still working from home so even if they were pinged they can still carry on which I think is deeply unfair.

Thankfully I haven't got the app but I've been advised by a doctor I know not to go to pub or anything or meet anyone elderly until he's had his result. Is that overkill as I feel fine.

Just want this nightmare to end!!

with respect, your colleague didn’t HAVE to get tested and doesn’t HAVE to isolate for 10 days (unless the test happens to be positive). Everything about the app is voluntary.
 

DelayRepay

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with respect, your colleague didn’t HAVE to get tested and doesn’t HAVE to isolate for 10 days (unless the test happens to be positive). Everything about the app is voluntary.

Indeed. Even though the app's told him to isolate, he is not required by law to do so. The law is not preventing him from coming to work.

If the employer's policy is not to allow staff to work when they've been told to isolate, that's fair enough (and understandable, given this is the government's advice). But the employee should still be paid, because he's available for work. I guess it might be different if he's on a zero hours type contract.
 

initiation

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Delete the app (or never install it).

Can you imagine the reaction 18 months ago if I had told you there was an app millions of people used which told them whether they could go outside or not. Its bonkers.
 
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myself and two friends got pinged a couple of days after going out for a meal a few weeks ago. We all promptly disabled contact tracing on the app.
 

LAX54

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Yes, but I do wonder if there is a difference between those who would still get paid if they were off and had to work from home - that would be me - and those who would lose money if they had to self- isolate.

Pardon me if I am being thick, but if you get pinged by being, for example, near someone in a shop, do you have to self-isolate? Or is it up to your employer policy?
The bit I do not follow is, if you have Track/Trace as does another person, if you are in close contact and the other person has Covid, you get pinged, but the rule for masks is, less than one metre for more than 15 mins, so surely 2 mins passing someone else will be a zero effect, or does the system work out you were both within a metre or two for x amount of time ?
 

ExRes

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I don't have, and have no intention of ever having, a smartphone so have no chance of being pinged by anybody, what confuses me is that the vast majority of the population seem to be anti Government and apoplectic about being 'tracked' by Big Brother, if that's the case then why have they downloaded the app and why are they taking any notice of it?
 

TheEdge

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The bit I do not follow is, if you have Track/Trace as does another person, if you are in close contact and the other person has Covid, you get pinged, but the rule for masks is, less than one metre for more than 15 mins, so surely 2 mins passing someone else will be a zero effect, or does the system work out you were both within a metre or two for x amount of time ?

The system records both the intensity of the Bluetooth signal between the two devices and the amount of time they keep "handshaking" to determine if it was a close contact.
 

Welly

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NHS staff were asked to switch off the app on their mobiles when at work to avoid the pinging! I never installed the app on my mobile - I'm happily ping-ignorant....
 

TPO

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NHS staff were asked to switch off the app on their mobiles when at work to avoid the pinging! I never installed the app on my mobile - I'm happily ping-ignorant....

Indeed, and I seem to recall the police were also advised to do the same. The app is obviously deeply flawed and needs scrapping or modifying immediately.

(And along with that, the PCR testing should have a maximum number of cycles of 25).

TPO
 

Horizon22

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I've had to isolate this week - my manager advised me it was the 3rd case in 2 weeks in just our team. So no surprise that train crew is affected. Absoutely zero symptoms They say that contact tracing in offices could be turned off which is fair, but doesn't take into account anything on journeys to work or generally going about your day-to-day life. Will probably turn it off when I'm back out tomorrow. Something will need to be done either way or critical industies will be crippled this summer.
 

Ianno87

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Delete the app (or never install it).

Can you imagine the reaction 18 months ago if I had told you there was an app millions of people used which told them whether they could go outside or not. Its bonkers.

There wasn't (yet) a pandemic 18 months ago.
 

DelayRepay

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From the BBC Live Feed:

London Tube line suspended after workers 'pinged'​

The Metropolitan Tube line in London has been suspended after control room staff were told to self-isolate by the NHS Covid-19 app.
There will be no service on the line for the rest of the day, the London Underground said.
The Piccadilly and District lines will also be affected until 21:00 BST.
Richard Jones, London Underground's head of network operations, said: "We apologise to customers for the disruption. London Underground tickets will be accepted on local bus services."

And now the Health Secretary's got it, presumably half the cabinet will have been pinged. Might incentive the government to change the rules I suppose.
 

WelshBluebird

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I've may have mentioned this in passing in another thread, but im struggling to agree that the app is the problem. In my mind the issue is the increase in cases. The app is working as it should - its pinging more and more people because more and more people are contracting covid.

Now maybe that is fine, and maybe you think that because of our vaccination rates then we don't need to worry about cases at all anymore. But to blame the app is a little naive when the increase of cases is the cause.
 
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Chris125

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More proof that the government, indeed most of the country, failed to grasp the true impact of high infection rates on daily life and haven't fully prepared - the greatest risk isn't overwhelmed hospitals (though possible), it's having so many people isolating at once that this country literally grinds to a halt.

Even today the media seem more interested in the impact of isolations on restaurants than transport and logistics, that's where the real crisis could be - as someone living on the Isle of Wight it's already having an impact on ferry services, what about early August?

There should probably be the same emphasis on Key Workers now as there was during the first wave tbh.
 
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LAX54

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NHS staff were asked to switch off the app on their mobiles when at work to avoid the pinging! I never installed the app on my mobile - I'm happily ping-ignorant....
At our workplace to, we were told to have it switched off, the Company could not keep up with staff going off due to being 'pinged' !
 

NSEFAN

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Meanwhile, I heard an announcement today at Huddersfield which was encouraging people to download the NHS Contact Tracer app. :lol:
 
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