People in England and Wales who are advised to self-isolate by the government's contact-tracing mobile app because they have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the COVID-19 cannot claim financial support because of a flaw in the app, Sky News broadcaster reported on Friday
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2020) People in England and Wales who are advised to self-isolate by the government's contact-tracing mobile app because they have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the COVID-19 cannot claim financial support because of a flaw in the app, Sky news broadcaster reported on Friday.
The UK government, which is trying to tackle the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, announced earlier that low-income workers who are told to isolate are entitled to receive 500 Pounds ($654) in case they cannot work from home.
According to the media outlet, the app's privacy-protecting design prevents people from claiming such payment, and only someone who tests positive for the coronavirus and receives the test result through the app can get the payment as they are referred to the National Health Service for manual contact tracing by telephone call.
The broadcaster said that it could not verify how many people had been affected by the flaw, citing Labour lawmaker Rachael Maskell as saying that in her constituency, public health authorities were inundated with claims and that the issue was creating chaos for local governments.
Large parts of the United Kingdom have been put under tougher social distancing restrictions in an attempt to contain the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of Thursday, the UK had recorded 789,229 coronavirus cases including 44,158 fatalities.
