The UK began trials of a new smartphone app on Thursday designed to track COVID-19 infections within the community, with versions also available in Indian languages such as Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla and Urdu in order to reach ethnicities not well-versed in English. The new app is part of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) Test and Trace service Test and Trace programme and is being overseen by Indian-origin techie Randeep Sidhu as Head of Product. The new application, dubbed a ¿state-of-the-art app that is safe, simple and secure¿, will begin trials this week among residents on the Isle of Wight region on the south coast of England and among NHS volunteer responders across England before expanding to the London borough of Newham.

A UK-wide roll-out is expected later this year by which time it will also be available in at least six other languages with the aim of encouraging a large number of people to download it. ¿We've worked with tech companies, international partners, privacy and medical experts to develop an app that is simple to use, secure and will help keep the country safe,¿ said UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock. ¿It's essential we get the country moving again so people can get back to doing what they love. Our statistics show more people with symptoms are getting tested and NHS Test and Trace reaches the vast majority of people testing positive, and their contacts,¿ he said.
The app is expected to further enhance the current volunteer-backed test and trace system and will build on the feedback from an earlier version of an NHS app, which was also trialled on the Isle of Wight.