Special report by PEOPLE’S WORLD
TRANSPORT Secretary Grant Shapps has revealed that the Isle of Wight is to be the initial testing ground for the new NHS Covid-19 contact tracing smartphone application.
The app developed by government department NHSX (responsible for co-ordinating digital developments within the NHS) will alert users if they have been in contact with a confirmed coronavirus case.
The government’s hope is that this will allow the country to emerge from full lockdown, relying on this app to maintain a sufficiently low level of transmission until a vaccine can be rolled out.
With more people dying each year and many spending their final days in institutions, researchers argue that wider access to palliative care could offer a more humane and cost-effective alternative, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Digital ID means the government could track anyone and then limit their speech, movements, finances — and it could get this all wrong, identifying the wrong people for the wrong reasons, as the numerous digital cockups so far demonstrate, warns DYLAN MURPHY
LYNNE WALSH reports from the Women’s Declaration International conference on feminist struggles from Britain to the Far East


