App close contact questions

Nobotty · 08-10-2020 10:12am #1

Hi folks,
Sorry if the answers to these are buried in a thread somewhere
A work colleague got an alert saying he is a close contact of a positive case and is getting tested today
As I work closely with him albeit just one day a week I'm restricting my movements until he has a result
Noone he knows has informed him
Only the app

How does that work
I've googled and it says the positive person gets texted a link/code that allows the app to upload his contacts

Are those all his address book?
Just anyone in his address book that have the app who were near him 48hrs prior to the test?
Or just random people his app pinged 48hrs prior to his test?

Just trying to figure out does he know the person or was it someone at a nearby table in a café or bar or something ?

Thanks in advance

plodder · 08-10-2020 10:19am

Nobotty wrote: »

Hi folks,
Sorry if the answers to these are buried in a thread somewhere
A work colleague got an alert saying he is a close contact of a positive case and is getting tested today
As I work closely with him albeit just one day a week I'm restricting my movements until he has a result
Noone he knows has informed him
Only the app

How does that work
I've googled and it says the positive person gets texted a link/code that allows the app to upload his contacts

Are those all his address book?

No, it's nothing to do with address book contacts. See below

Just anyone in his address book that have the app who were near him 48hrs prior to the test?
Or just random people his app pinged 48hrs prior to his test?

Just trying to figure out does he know the person or was it someone at a nearby table in a café or bar or something ?

This. A contact is someone else who has the app and was close to him for a period of time. This is detected by bluetooth. Could be a cafe, on a bus, in a barber shop/hair-salon, the side of a football pitch, or anywhere people congregate.

Nobotty · 08-10-2020 11:02am

plodder wrote: »

No, it's nothing to do with address book contacts. See below

This. A contact is someone else who has the app and was close to him for a period of time. This is detected by bluetooth. Could be a cafe, on a bus, in a barber shop/hair-salon, the side of a football pitch, or anywhere people congregate.

Perfect, that eases my mind a bit,but you never know,with the case they mentioned last week with people at a socially distanced table in a restaurant getting it

Nobotty · 08-10-2020 11:39am

Does the app mine strangers phone numbers in that Bluetooth contact between phones?
Or is the onus on him to arrange a test?
Should he have got a call from contact tracing?

ceegee · 08-10-2020 11:45am

Nobotty wrote: »

Does the app mine strangers phone numbers in that Bluetooth contact between phones?
Or is the onus on him to arrange a test?
Should he have got a call from contact tracing?

The app just records randomised ID numbers from each phone it interacts with. When someone tests positive this list is sent out to each phone with the app. If one of these IDs was generated by your phone you will be notified that you're a close contact.
Providing a phone number was optional when setting up the app. If you provided one then AFAIK they ring you

(This is my layman's understanding of how it works, someone else may better explain the technicalities)

IrishStuff09 · 08-10-2020 11:45am

Nobotty wrote: »

Does the app mine strangers phone numbers in that Bluetooth contact between phones?
Or is the onus on him to arrange a test?
Should he have got a call from contact tracing?

The app doesn't touch anyone's personal data unless they get a close contact alert, then their phone number gets sent to the HSE (if they have supplied it in the app - it won't pull their number from anywhere else on their phone).

He should get a call from the contact tracing team soon enough assuming he has set his phone number in the app (likely, since it asks you to do this when you install it). As for how long that takes these days, I'm not quite sure

Nobotty · 08-10-2020 7:43pm

IrishStuff09 wrote: »

The app doesn't touch anyone's personal data unless they get a close contact alert, then their phone number gets sent to the HSE (if they have supplied it in the app - it won't pull their number from anywhere else on their phone).

He should get a call from the contact tracing team soon enough assuming he has set his phone number in the app (likely, since it asks you to do this when you install it). As for how long that takes these days, I'm not quite sure

The close contact was over a week ago from someone it seems awaiting a result
The notification came in yesterday
No word from contact tracing yet and its been 24hrs (and 8 days since the contact)

Sure if he has it,all the virus will be shed by now to all and sundry
He has no symptoms
No wonder its spreading

Nobotty · 09-10-2020 4:48pm

Still no word from contact tracing or a test appointment in this case

mirrorwall14 · 09-10-2020 5:12pm

Nobotty wrote: »

Hi folks,
Sorry if the answers to these are buried in a thread somewhere
A work colleague got an alert saying he is a close contact of a positive case and is getting tested today
As I work closely with him albeit just one day a week I'm restricting my movements until he has a result
Noone he knows has informed him
Only the app

How does that work
I've googled and it says the positive person gets texted a link/code that allows the app to upload his contacts

Are those all his address book?
Just anyone in his address book that have the app who were near him 48hrs prior to the test?
Or just random people his app pinged 48hrs prior to his test?

Just trying to figure out does he know the person or was it someone at a nearby table in a café or bar or something ?

Thanks in advance

Just to add that HSE guidance says you do not need to restrict your movements because he has no symptoms and has not tested positive. You only become a close contact if he tests positive.

Nobotty · 09-10-2020 8:29pm

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Just to add that HSE guidance says you do not need to restrict your movements because he has no symptoms and has not tested positive. You only become a close contact if he tests positive.

Oh I know that but it makes sense for me as I work with him and if he is positive, then he had the infection when working with me
He has not even got a tracing call yet
Just goes to show

Fr_Dougal · 09-10-2020 9:29pm

plodder wrote: »

No, it's nothing to do with address book contacts. See below

This. A contact is someone else who has the app and was close to him for a period of time. This is detected by bluetooth. Could be a cafe, on a bus, in a barber shop/hair-salon, the side of a football pitch, or anywhere people congregate.

Except if you’re a teacher. Teachers can’t have close contacts, they’re immune.

Nobotty · 12-10-2020 7:37pm

Colleague got a negative test result today
Phew!

Wetbench4 · 12-10-2020 8:29pm

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Except if you’re a teacher. Teachers can’t have close contacts, they’re immune.

Ya they can, my daughters teacher was confirmed positive so all the class got tested and sent home for two weeks.. My daughter was negative but she still has to restrict movements and stay at home for the remainder of the fortnight..

Dressoutlet · 13-10-2020 12:53pm

Just to add I have the app and when I check my matches its always been 0 this weekend I had a match but no notification from the app. Queried with the HSE and they said although I was matched with a positive case, my phone wasn't around them for long enough to be considered a close contact
I could have been on the bus, walking through a shop etc.
Incase anyone sees they're a match but no notification from the app

RichT · 14-10-2020 8:46pm

Myself and my wife both got the following notification from the tracking app late yesterday afternoon. We were in separate parts of the city at the time.

Close Contact Alert. The app has detected that you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19

The Contact Tracing Team will be in touch with you shortly

Rang the HSELive number to book a call back, and was told by automated message that I was already in the queue if I had received the notification and would be contacted within 24 hours. (We haven't been contacted yet)

I'm assuming the close contact was within the last 14 days.

We are both showing no symptoms, and feel fit and well apart from a chronic case of frustration with the waiting for them to contact us.

Anybody else have any experience with the app notification?

Beasty · 14-10-2020 9:13pm

Threads merged

touts · 15-10-2020 8:23pm

Got a notification of a close contact alert yesterday morning. No phone call yet (at this point effectively 2 working days have gone by). Instructions on the app are NOT to go to work or shops etc and to self isolate until I get a call "shortly". Tried ringing the HSE number on the app and got a computer telling me I'm in the queue and will get a call within 24 hours of the alert (which passed this morning). Does anyone know how long it takes between the alert and when they call you. Two days and counting makes me suspect it is a false alert but I don't want to take the chance. Edit: My number is on the app.

RichT · 15-10-2020 9:04pm

Welcome to 'The Club' touts. :rolleyes:

Looks like I'm half a day ahead of you in the queue going by the notification times.

Still no news here :mad: I will of course announce it here, if and when I get a call back.

Thoie · 19-10-2020 4:50pm

RichT wrote: »

Welcome to 'The Club' touts. :rolleyes:

Looks like I'm half a day ahead of you in the queue going by the notification times.

Still no news here :mad: I will of course announce it here, if and when I get a call back.

Did you get a call yet? Was it the 14th you got the alert?

touts · 19-10-2020 5:20pm

Thoie wrote: »

Did you get a call yet? Was it the 14th you got the alert?

I got my alert last Wednesday. Phoned the helpline several times. Was told each time to wait. 6 days in and no call yet. Phoned my GP. They said they have been instructed that without symptoms they couldn't send patients for a test. Fortunately I can work from home but I can imagine many others would be having difficult discussions with their managers after almost a week being out but not actually sick.

Contract tracing via the app has basically ceased to function. I suspect this is because they are completely overwhelmed with in person tracing. I expect they will have to discontinue the app in the next few days. It will only cause people stress if they get a warning and the HSE can clearly do nothing to actually help them unless they develop symptoms which puts them in the GP referral system.

RichT · 19-10-2020 5:51pm

We finally got our calls this afternoon. The app notification was last Tuesday afternoon (13th October)

The close contact was allegedly Sunday 11th October, except it wasn't. There's no way we were in close contact with anyone on that day. The app is a great idea but clearly doesn't work properly so we are going to delete it.

alentejo · 19-10-2020 6:27pm

I went for a test last week and filled out a form. Would it be a good idea that an additional form is required to fill out out potential close contacts. Might help speed up the process

Thoie · 20-10-2020 9:27am

RichT wrote: »

We finally got our calls this afternoon. The app notification was last Tuesday afternoon (13th October)

The close contact was allegedly Sunday 11th October, except it wasn't. There's no way we were in close contact with anyone on that day. The app is a great idea but clearly doesn't work properly so we are going to delete it.

Were they able to tell you the day of contact over the phone? That's the bit I was wondering about. I got the alert on Sunday (18th). Looking back over my timeline, I'm fairly sure the contact must have been on Saturday 10th. It's the only location that I spent more than 15 minutes in one place with other people in the last few weeks. If it was that day, then the risks are comparatively low - everyone was fully masked up for the duration.

Contact on the 11th and notification on the 13th seems unlikely, unless the person on the 11th already had the test and was waiting on results. I would expect there'd be at least 3 days between contact and the notification. E.g. be in contact with someone on the 10th. That person gets symptoms and calls their doctor the next day. Test on the 12th, results on the 13th, upload notification to the app - and that's if everything went smoothly. Realistically I'd imagine the lag would be more like 4-7 days.

Did they suggest your 14 days restricted movement should start from the 11th (supposed contact) or the 13th (received notification)?

RichT · 20-10-2020 6:02pm

Thoie wrote: »

Were they able to tell you the day of contact over the phone? That's the bit I was wondering about. I got the alert on Sunday (18th). Looking back over my timeline, I'm fairly sure the contact must have been on Saturday 10th. It's the only location that I spent more than 15 minutes in one place with other people in the last few weeks. If it was that day, then the risks are comparatively low - everyone was fully masked up for the duration.

Contact on the 11th and notification on the 13th seems unlikely, unless the person on the 11th already had the test and was waiting on results. I would expect there'd be at least 3 days between contact and the notification. E.g. be in contact with someone on the 10th. That person gets symptoms and calls their doctor the next day. Test on the 12th, results on the 13th, upload notification to the app - and that's if everything went smoothly. Realistically I'd imagine the lag would be more like 4-7 days.

Did they suggest your 14 days restricted movement should start from the 11th (supposed contact) or the 13th (received notification)?

Yes we were told Sunday 11th was the day (couldn't tell us the time) of the 'close contact.'

Restricted movement starts 14 days from date of close contact.

We have now both deleted the app.

Thoie · 21-10-2020 8:29am

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/covid-19-backlog-forces-hse-to-skip-calls-to-thousands-of-close-contacts-1.4386512

The HSE has said that it will send a text message on Wednesday to between 2,000 and 2,500 people, who have already been informed by text of their infection, asking them to tell their own close contacts to contact their GPs immediately to seek a test.

Looks like people (like me) who received the alert over the weekend will just get a text message today telling us to do it ourselves.

schmoo2k · 03-01-2021 1:56pm

In our household we have had 3 positive (and 1 negative) test results since Christmas.

For each of the 3 positives not a single request was made to upload the data from the Covid app (I think they provide a number you enter into the App)?

Or do I have that wrong, can they infer it from the mobile number given for the test?

IMO it is a real shame after all the development work and advertising that went into it...

(None of them thought to mention it when rang which is understandable IMO).

Midnight Sundance · 03-01-2021 4:39pm

I was only wondering this myself earlier. Wud be interested to hear if anyone has been contacted with it lately. Somehow I've a feeling it has fallen by the wayside ,along with testing close contacts

This is it · 03-01-2021 4:45pm

I had completely forgotten about it. I was asked to enter details in mid October after testing positive, didn't hear anything after that but I didn't expect to

fly_agaric · 03-01-2021 5:27pm

schmoo2k wrote: »

In our household we have had 3 positive (and 1 negative) test results since Christmas.

For each of the 3 positives not a single request was made to upload the data from the Covid app (I think they provide a number you enter into the App)?

Or do I have that wrong, can they infer it from the mobile number given for the test?

Would have thought it would be something they run through if you test positive (do you have the application on your phone + will you consent to have the codes uploaded)?

In the "Contact tracing" section of the application it says "a member of the contact tracing team may ask you to share Random IDs generated by your phone over the previous 14 days".

Suppose it doesn't matter much now anyway as they have completely lost control again + are just telling people to stay at home (again) as much as possible and don't bother seeking a test etc unless you have symptoms. That could be why they stopped bothering (if they have).

Away With The Fairies · 03-01-2021 5:30pm

What was the point in this app? Surely it was meant to get people to isolate and prevent further spread? Another failure with all this. It should have been mandatory. But I guess that's too much trouble for people to be told to isolate.

Fr_Dougal · 03-01-2021 5:30pm

schmoo2k wrote: »

In our household we have had 3 positive (and 1 negative) test results since Christmas.

For each of the 3 positives not a single request was made to upload the data from the Covid app (I think they provide a number you enter into the App)?

Or do I have that wrong, can they infer it from the mobile number given for the test?

IMO it is a real shame after all the development work and advertising that went into it...

(None of them thought to mention it when rang which is understandable IMO).

No. They’ve stopped contract tracing so it’s of zero use aside from letting you know the number of infectious etc.

All it serves to do now is drain phone batteries. Maybe it will be useful again in a couple of months when things calm down a bit.

03-01-2021 5:34pm

Yeah, I was all for its use at the start but they haven’t really followed up on it so it’s best gone for now.

plodder · 03-01-2021 5:50pm

When I had a positive test in October, a few days after the notification I got the contact tracing calls where they provided the code to upload the covid contacts from the app. There was no need for that (approx) two day delay in my opinion. I got the impression they wanted to slow down the app to the same speed that the human tracers were working at. And because that is a time-consuming manual process it can easily get overloaded if numbers go up suddenly (as they have multiple times).

So, I don't think they ever got the best out of the app. If they sent you the code for uploading the codes, as part of the positive test notification, the app could continue working no matter how "exponential" the growth in cases is.

fly_agaric · 03-01-2021 5:51pm

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

No. They’ve stopped contract tracing so it’s of zero use aside from letting you know the number of infectious etc.

All it serves to do now is drain phone batteries. Maybe it will be useful again in a couple of months when things calm down a bit.

Think they should still be getting positive cases to upload ids even if they cannot test the "contacts" that get notified via the app...that will cause more phone calls/contacts for them of course.

Don't think about the application much but would open it the odd time to check the statistics stuff that is included in it.

Had a look and it is using 0.4 % of my battery on Android, and Google Play Services (which I think includes the Exposure Notification Service) uses about 1.5 % so it is minimal really.

Sleeper12 · 03-01-2021 6:05pm

The were definitely using the app for contact tracing up to early December. I have a feeling that the system is so overwhelmed now that it is not being used right now. They can't even approve all of the positive cases let alone trace their contacts.

Government should hang its head in shame "opening the country" to give us a Christmas (vote buying), at a time when we socialise the most. At the same time they haven't ramped up contact tracing since last May.

Back to the app, just look at how few people even check in anymore.

Beasty · 03-01-2021 6:22pm

Threads merged

touts · 04-01-2021 1:29am

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

What was the point in this app? Surely it was meant to get people to isolate and prevent further spread? Another failure with all this. It should have been mandatory. But I guess that's too much trouble for people to be told to isolate.

I got a close contact alert on it a few months ago. Was told to self isolate and the contact tracing team would phone me within 24 hours to arrange a test. Nearly died when the red alert popped up on my phone. I immediately went home and self isolated. Waited 24 hours. No call. Phoned the help line which said to just keep waiting. Waited 48 hours. No call. Phoned the HSE and told to keep waiting. Waited 5 days. No call. Phoned the HSE again. The person said "If you have symptoms ask your GP to arrange a test otherwise keep waiting and someone would phone me within 24 hours". On Day 7 I phoned my GP. She said they were getting lots of calls like this. The app wasn't working. She knew no one who had actually been phoned. She booked an appointment for me the following day. Came back negative thankfully. 3 months later still no call from Contact Tracing.

In my opinion the app is a sham. It says that over 16k people "Received a close contact alert". But it pointedly does not say how many, if any, of those were actually contacted. My bet is close to zero. It was rushed out in the early days to make people feel that the government was actually doing something to protect them. But it is basically useless. You might as well wear a miraculous medal around your neck. It was and still is simply about making people feel better because they think they have done something to protect themselves.

Of course the people who feel a lot better are the people who designed it for €1 million + if I recall correctly. I'd imagine this will be something that will come under intense scrutiny when we get through the crisis and people start investigating what happened. Would love to see Simon Donnelly answer a Daily question about this if anyone knows a TD.

plodder · 04-01-2021 9:57am

touts wrote: »

I got a close contact alert on it a few months ago. Was told to self isolate and the contact tracing team would phone me within 24 hours to arrange a test. Nearly died when the red alert popped up on my phone. I immediately went home and self isolated. Waited 24 hours. No call. Phoned the help line which said to just keep waiting. Waited 48 hours. No call. Phoned the HSE and told to keep waiting. Waited 5 days. No call. Phoned the HSE again. The person said "If you have symptoms ask your GP to arrange a test otherwise keep waiting and someone would phone me within 24 hours". On Day 7 I phoned my GP. She said they were getting lots of calls like this. The app wasn't working. She knew no one who had actually been phoned. She booked an appointment for me the following day. Came back negative thankfully. 3 months later still no call from Contact Tracing.

In my opinion the app is a sham. It says that over 16k people "Received a close contact alert". But it pointedly does not say how many, if any, of those were actually contacted. My bet is close to zero. It was rushed out in the early days to make people feel that the government was actually doing something to protect them. But it is basically useless. You might as well wear a miraculous medal around your neck. It was and still is simply about making people feel better because they think they have done something to protect themselves.

Of course the people who feel a lot better are the people who designed it for €1 million + if I recall correctly. I'd imagine this will be something that will come under intense scrutiny when we get through the crisis and people start investigating what happened. Would love to see Simon Donnelly answer a Daily question about this if anyone knows a TD.

I see where you are coming from, but I think the system at least partly worked in your case and that was down to the app. You got a close contact notification, so you knew you had to self isolate.

Personally, I think the app should be completely automated and only partly linked to the manual tracing system. As soon as you get a close contact notification you should be sent a link to schedule a test for yourself, and as soon as you get a positive test result, you should get the code to upload your own app information. All that could be done completely automatically and independent of the tracing team imo.

For what it's worth, I think they did manage to phone the majority of people but there was delays that cost time, and which could have been avoided with a more automated system imo.

Irishphotodesk · 04-01-2021 10:17am

Sleeper12 wrote: »

The were definitely using the app for contact tracing up to early December. I have a feeling that the system is so overwhelmed now that it is not being used right now. They can't even approve all of the positive cases let alone trace their contacts.

Government should hang its head in shame "opening the country" to give us a Christmas (vote buying), at a time when we socialise the most. At the same time they haven't ramped up contact tracing since last May.

Back to the app, just look at how few people even check in anymore.

seriously ???
- just because thew government said you can do something doesn't mean you should, people need to take responsibility for their own actions - the people that are to blame are the people who actively went out and met with people outside of their own home, those that travelled and had family dinners, those that celebrated with friends.....they are to blame !!

personal responsibility needs to be done by the people - how can people blame the government when the virus is being spread by the people.

I can count on a single hand the amount of people I have been in contact with since early november - we had covid in the house and the whole house isolated for the month of November, so we "should" have had some sort of immunity over christmas - but we didn't meet family/friends to protect them, we had christmas at our own home and family/friends were seen through a computer screen, its been that way since March.

As for the app - I never got it as I don't think our government is capable of getting something like this done correctly, there's too much protocol and red-tape required and the civil liberties groups would be afraid of the possible mis-use of data (probably rightly) - when my wife got her positive result, she had 2 close contacts in the two weeks prior to her result, one was the GP (because she and the kids got the flu-jab), the other was a neighbour who she went for a socially distant walk with 2 days before any signs of a head-cold (she had a headcold for a few days before sense of smell/taste went - we called doc and doc arranged for covid test).

I do have a problem with nphet asking close contacts not to go for a test - this is going to artificially deflate the numbers - if any of them are positive (asymptomatic or otherwise) they will not be counted as a covid positive case - thus making the numbers artificially lower.

Sleeper12 · 04-01-2021 10:25am

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

seriously ???
- just because thew government said you can do something doesn't mean you should, people need to take responsibility for their own actions - the people that are to blame are the people who actively went out and met with people outside of their own home, those that travelled and had family dinners, those that celebrated with friends.....they are to blame !!

personal responsibility needs to be done by the people - how can people blame the government when the virus is being spread by the people.

I can count on a single hand the amount of people I have been in contact with since early november - we had covid in the house and the whole house isolated for the month of November, so we "should" have had some sort of immunity over christmas - but we didn't meet family/friends to protect them, we had christmas at our own home and family/friends were seen through a computer screen, its been that way since March.

I didn't do anything. I took no risks. I'm autistic & don't like crowds or mixing with people. Government shouldn't have opened the country coming up to Christmas & the pups serving food should never been allowed to open. Some idiots haven't a clue what social distancing is or couldn't care. While I took personal responsibility these idiots spread the virus & this spreading was encouraged by our government & I hold the 3 parties responsible for this.

Every other country was closing up shop over the Christmas. We were one of the only ones opening up at the time of year when people mix the most.

Irishphotodesk · 04-01-2021 10:33am

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I didn't do anything. I took no risks. I'm autistic & don't like crowds or mixing with people. Government shouldn't have opened the country coming up to Christmas & the pups serving food should never been allowed to open. Some idiots haven't a clue what social distancing is or couldn't care. While I took personal responsibility these idiots spread the virus & this spreading was encouraged by our government & I hold the 3 parties responsible for this.

Every other country was closing up shop over the Christmas. We were one of the only ones opening up at the time of year when people mix the most.

good for you - hope you stay safe and remain covid-free.

The government tried to educate people and minimise the risks - if they said no movement anywhere - people would have gone out of their way to meet up with friends/family, as you have said people were going to meet up anyway !!

unfortunately - the message is mixed and people either choose to ignore or made their own decision to get close to family/friends.

I think the government needs to be clear on policy and clear on rules/transmission etc - the problem is in Ireland the law is often open to interpretation and legals can always find a loophole in ireland....its a joke.

as an example (if my memory is correct) a romanian national was not given drink driving results in irish and as such he was spared a criminal conviction for alleged drink driving (only a legal could argue this as being correct/fair).

we have recommendations while other countries have laws , we are afraid or unable to change the laws because we know they can and will be challenged and those that are creating the rules/regulations simply take into consideration the effect the rules will have on the virus, not the effect it will have on a persons mental capacity or financial situation.

glack · 04-01-2021 11:36am

Lots of “the app doesn’t work posts” so thought I’d share an alternative story.

Family member got an alert - within a couple of hours got a call from contact tracing. This was in October so they weren’t so overwhelmed.

She went home from work immediately after getting alert and restricted her movements. Tested following day and tested positive. Immediately self isolated in her bedroom and none of her family caught it - they restricted their movements for 14 days but no interaction between her and the rest of the family.

It was 7 days later before she had symptoms. Imagine how many people could have caught it from her?? Her 4 household contacts all would have a large number of close contacts (schools and nature of her husbands job) so it could have been passed on to a large number.

No one she was in contact with ever rang or text her to tell her they had tested positive. Only people she had been in contact with were clients at work - all while wearing masks!! And her family who clearly aren’t the reason she got the app alert.

Sleeper12 · 04-01-2021 11:36am

Irishphotodesk wrote:

The government tried to educate people and minimise the risks - if they said no movement anywhere - people would have gone out of their way to meet up with friends/family, as you have said people were going to meet up anyway !!

They do this with drugs too. They educate us from childhood but they still ban them.
Education is wonderful BUT they should have followed the advice given by their paid experts. They didn't & they failed the country.

Why bother with drink driving check points or speed vans? What about personal responsibility? We have these to protect the rest of the population.

It's a very hollow victory saying that its personal responsibility while at the same time we will have 8000 cases per day in a few days. The governments job is to protect us from the people who don't care about personal responsibility.

This surge lies at the feet of the government.

fly_agaric · 04-01-2021 12:45pm

glack wrote: »

Lots of “the app doesn’t work posts” so thought I’d share an alternative story.

Yes, the anecdotes imply some problems in systems around it (follow up call delays, people with a positive test not being given the code to upload ids) rather than "the app doesn’t work".

With the user base HSE states, with 2 random adults, I'd estimate there is only about a 13 % probability* that a positive case and a contact both have it installed so it is not exactly going to solve all their contact tracing problems. Better than not having it at all though.

Whatever about not being able to test the contacts identified through the application any more due to the increase in cases, they should be ensuring that application users who test positive can upload the ids afterwards. Not being able to test the contacts is bad, but not ensuring ids get uploaded after a positive test is much worse.

*Ireland's estimated population is 4.9 million.
Adult (18+) population from Census 2016 is 3.57 million (3.57/4.76 million = 0.75)
Very rough estimate of current adult population using that is 3.67 million
App user base 1.3 million
So assuming these are mostly adults ~ 35.4 % of adults have it installed.

Logo · 05-01-2021 12:34am

I logged onto the COVID tracker around 7pm this evening and 11:30pm tonight and was informed on both occasions of 4962 cases and 7 deaths on 3rd Jan. Yet I was informed online (independent.ie) of 6110 cases and 6 deaths at approx 7.30pm for 4th Jan this evening. It's difficult to have confidence in the tracker - is it keeping up with real-time information?

Beasty · 05-01-2021 12:57am

Threads merged

Thoie · 05-01-2021 11:56am

Logo wrote: »

I logged onto the COVID tracker around 7pm this evening and 11:30pm tonight and was informed on both occasions of 4962 cases and 7 deaths on 3rd Jan. Yet I was informed online (independent.ie) of 6110 cases and 6 deaths at approx 7.30pm for 4th Jan this evening. It's difficult to have confidence in the tracker - is it keeping up with real-time information?

It's a day behind. It gives the date on the cases box. Today, Jan 5th at 11am, it's saying "4th January 6,110 cases, 6 deaths". I'm not sure at what time exactly it updates, but it updates overnight, so you're always looking at yesterday's final figures.

The figures/graphs it gives are for general information only. It's primary purpose is for monitoring "contacts". It doesn't need to keep up with real-time information (that would just hog data and battery more).

oneweb · 08-01-2021 10:56pm

schmoo2k wrote: »

In our household we have had 3 positive (and 1 negative) test results since Christmas.

For each of the 3 positives not a single request was made to upload the data from the Covid app (I think they provide a number you enter into the App)?

Or do I have that wrong, can they infer it from the mobile number given for the test?

IMO it is a real shame after all the development work and advertising that went into it...

(None of them thought to mention it when rang which is understandable IMO).

Saw an ad on Virgin One for the Covid App this evening so they're still pushing for it to be used at least.

Vic987 · 23-06-2021 2:03pm

Apologies if this has been covered before.

I have just been contacted to say I was a close contact of somebody who tested positive. The contact was outside at a football match and we were not physically close (standing together during match), no masks. So, I have to get a test either today or tomorrow.

However, I recently broke my wrist and I have an appointment at the fracture clinic on Friday. Not a vital hospital visit but something that can't be left either. I need physio on the wrist, possibly assessment and another x-ray.

Anybody else got experience of a similar scenario?

Thoie · 23-06-2021 2:05pm

Vic987 wrote: »

Apologies if this has been covered before.

I have just been contacted to say I was a close contact of somebody who tested positive. The contact was outside at a football match and we were not physically close (standing together during match), no masks. So, I have to get a test either today or tomorrow.

However, I recently broke my wrist and I have an appointment at the fracture clinic on Friday. Not a vital hospital visit but something that can't be left either. I need physio on the wrist, possibly assessment and another x-ray.

Anybody else got experience of a similar scenario?

Call the hospital and let them know - any hospital appointment I've had in the last year they've had a questionnaire about contacts/exposure etc. I've always been able to answer no - I'm not sure what will happen if you answer yes.

App close contact questions

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