"The launch of the NHS COVID-19 app will help residents, visitors and businesses, along with the councils which support them, to keep track of and isolate future outbreaks."
Responding to the forthcoming launch of the NHS COVID-19 app, which will be used to help businesses meet their legal requirement to record contact details of customers, visitors and staff on their premises, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“The launch of the NHS COVID-19 app will help residents, visitors and businesses, along with the councils which support them, to keep track of and isolate future outbreaks.
“Councils were among those who first piloted the app in their local communities and it is right that they continue to have a pivotal role in managing the local as well as national response. This new tool will complement and work alongside existing local contact tracing efforts.
“As we unfortunately continue to see a rise in infections and the national R rate, we must remain absolutely vigilant and fully prepared to help prevent a possible second wave of coronavirus.
“We urge everybody to download the app when it becomes available and for businesses to ready themselves by having their QR code posters in place, so that as many people as possible are able to play their part in the national effort to defeat this disease.”
Notes to editors
The LGA represents more than 330 councils of all types across England. We work on behalf of our members to support, promote and improve local government.
It is councils who had led communities through the COVID-19 crisis. Our recent polling shows that 71 per cent of residents trust their council and two thirds are satisfied with the way their local council runs things in their area. Our new discussion paper - Re-thinking Local - sets out how councils must now be empowered to locally-lead the COVID-19 recovery and tackle the economic, environmental and community challenges that we will face as a result of the pandemic.