Hundreds of people still "pinged" to self-isolate in Northern Lincolnshire
Double-vaccinated adults and under-18s no longer have to self-isolate if they're identified as close contacts, instead being urged to get a PCR test
Hundreds of people are still getting pinged to self-isolate across northern Lincolnshire every week.
The NHS contact tracing app is continuing to inform people whether they have been in contact with a Covid case.
818 people in North East Lincolnshire were told they had been in contact with coronavirus between August 5 and 11 – the most recent week for which data is available.
Another 966 were contacted in North Lincolnshire in this time.
The ‘pingdemic’ earlier this summer saw businesses, restaurants and other venues temporarily close in northern Lincolnshire.
The disruption is unsurprising given the thousands of people who were told to self-isolate.
In the three weeks between July 7 and 28, a total of 6,757 people had to self-isolate in North East Lincolnshire. A further 4,133 received the alert in North Lincolnshire.
People are also being more reluctant to check-in with a QR code when they go out now.
The number of check-ins has drastically fallen since the end of lockdown.
Between March – the end of the stay-at-home rules – through to July – when all rules were relaxed – there were at least 60,000 weekly check-ins at northern Lincolnshire venues.
This data helps the government find anyone who may have been in contact with Covid.
However, very few people are still using the NHS app to check in.
For the week ending August 11, there were just 2,788 uses in North East Lincolnshire, and 3,696 in North Lincolnshire.
Venues aren’t legally required customers to scan in anymore, although most still have it as an option.
Fears over getting ‘pinged’ may also have made people more reluctant to share their location.
The NHS advises that people continue to scan the QR code in order to maintain public safety after restrictions are lifted.
Health experts say that between half a million and 600,000 Covid cases were averted thanks to the app, which has been downloaded 25.8 million times.