NHS tracing app will tell users when someone tests positive at their local pub or restaurant 

The NHS tracing app will alert users if someone tests positive for the virus at their local pub or restaurant, the programme’s chairman has revealed.

Baroness Harding promised the technology would be available in time for winter – despite an earlier version being scrapped last month. 

She said the new app would have a barcode recognition system, enabling users to scan their phones when they entered pubs, restaurants or shops.

If someone who visited one of these venues then tested positive for the virus, the app would issue an alert to all who had scanned in – and possibly tell them to get tested.

Baroness Harding, chairman of the NHS test and trace programme, said it would be very similar to New Zealand’s app, which was rolled out in the middle of May.

But ultimately, she said it would be ‘concerted local action’, including lockdowns, that would be most important in beating the virus. 

She said: ‘The way that we beat Covid is actually a very human thing.

‘A bit of technology in our pocket will help but it’s not going to be the primary way we beat the disease.’

She added: ‘Your phone will continually be updated when you’ve been in locations where there have been outbreaks.’

The Government was last month forced to ditch its original app after conceding it did not work on Apple iPhones, one of the most widely used smartphones in the UK.

Officials are now developing a system provided jointly by Apple and Google which is expected to pick up a much higher number of potential contacts.