Public health experts urge people in South Yorkshire not to delete Covid-19 app
Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK getting pinged every week
Public health bosses in South Yorkshire are urging people not to delete the NHS Covid-19 app as disruption caused by self-isolation continues.
Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK are getting pinged every week when they've been in contact with someone who's had coronavirus.
It's led to many getting frustrated with the system and deleting or switching off the app so they don't get told to stay at home.
But Director of Public Health in Barnsley Julia Burrows is urging people to stick with it - she says it's still a key way to limit the spread of Covid:
"Isolation is still really really important. This virus is incredibly infectious - like very little we've seen before - and we know people that can spread coronavirus without any symptoms. So isolating is really important - it's one of the most important things we can do now.
"We know that the law's changing in August so that people who are double vaccinated won't have to isolate in the same way. And the logic in that is that people who are vaccinated are less likely to spread coronavirus as well as less likely to become ill or to die. So that feels like a safety measure.
"We're still in a pandemic, and we will be for some time yet, so I would really encourage everyone just to keep being careful, keep being considerate - we can still spread the virus."
From 16th August anyone fully vaccinated against Covid won't have to isolate if they're identified as a contact of a positive case but the government recommends they do take a test.
Many businesses are still struggling with the effects of staff getting pinged.
Brett owns a marketing business in Doncaster - he's worried his company will be affected if too many staff members have to self-isolate
"We've been quite lucky but obviously with gigs and everything opening back up and people going out it's a concern of ours that if they get pinged then obviously they're going to have to have time off. August 16th will be quite good becaue they're workers we can get them tested so they can still come in. By the same token that then has the risk of one of us could actually get Covid from it.
"We've just come out to plan filming for the next few weeks. Now our issue is if we get pinged the day before we're due to go out filming what am I meant to do? Because I can't bill the client and at the same token it's not the client's fault. And then we're losing money and we've just had eighteen months of hell."