Test and Trace boss Dido Harding told to self-isolate after getting notification from NHS app

The head of Test and Trace Baroness Dido Harding is self-isolating after she received a notification from the NHS app she helps to develop.

The Tory peer posted an image of the “you need to self-isolate” app notification, and wrote: “Nothing like personal experience of your own products …. got this overnight. Feeling well. Many hours of Zoom ahead.”

She has been told she needs to self-isolate until the end of November 26.

Lady Harding’s husband, Tory MP John Penrose, has previously been told to self-isolate by the Test and Trace app after potentially coming into contact with someone who has coronavirus.

On November 9 the Weston-super-Mare MP tweeted: “It never rains but it pours…. my NHS app has just gone off, telling me to self-isolate, which I’m doing. No symptoms so far *crosses fingers*”

Asked at the time if he had spoken to his wife about it, he saoid: “We are trying to make sure we are doing it by the book, if I can put it that way.

“Her NHS app has not gone off so it’s someone I have been in contact with rather than her.”

The news of Lady Harding’s self-isolation comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to answer questions at PMQs by videolink on Wednesday as he continues to self-isolate after a meeting with MP Lee Anderson, who tested positive for Covid-19.

Mr Johnson has tested negative for coronavirus but will remain in self-isolation, Downing Street said on Tuesday.

Data released last week revealed that the NHS Test and Trace system is continuing to struggle to reach much more than 60% of the close contacts of people who test positive for coronavirus.

Government figures published on Thursday showed 60.4% of close contacts in England were reached through Test and Trace in the week ending November 4.

It was the fourth week in a row the figure has been around 60%, having dropped from 77.2% during the week ending September 16.

The data came after Lady Harding said testing and trace on its own is not a “silver bullet” to hold back the spread of coronavirus.

She told a committee of MPs on November 10 that the evidence in the UK and across Europe was that it was just one of a range of interventions needed to tackle the virus.