Doctors and nurses are deleting the NHS Covid app as frustration builds over jabbed people being pinged to isolate, it has been reported.
The government is facing pressure to allow the health workers to be exempt from self-isolation rules amid fears staff absences are gutting out the hospital front lines.
Fury is growing over the app as soaring numbers being pinged force already vaccinated people to isolate.
The government's official app guidance already advises healthcare workers to 'pause' contact tracing while at work, allowing them to care for Covid patients while wearing PPE.
But NHS managers reportedly said some staff were quietly disabling the app a all times or deleting it from their phones entirely in fear of being pinged.
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One health worker told The Telegraph : "I had Covid in the first wave, I've been double jabbed – I can't keep isolating every time the app pings. I switched it off ages ago, and I think a lot of staff who are double vaccinated have done the same."
A senior doctor added: "I have already had to stay at home several times recently, when the children were sent home from school to isolate. I can't have the app on top of that, so I deleted it."
The government is facing pressure over its decision to wait until August 16 to allow double-jabbed people to be exempt from isolation rules because of the rapid spread of the Delta variant.
The government is planning a 'test and release' strategy to replace isolation orders for the fully vaccinated.
But as the latest official figures showed app isolation alerts soaring by 62% in one week, some have urged the date to be brought forward to the July 19 unlocking date.
Some 356,036 app users were told to self-isolate due to contact with a Covid case in the week to June 30 - up from 219,391 the week before.
Pubs and restaurants have complained they are being left short-staffed by the isolation orders.
And many Brits worry the risks of being told to isolate will place summer holidays in doubt.
But Labour has warned rumoured plans to ditch the app entirely from July 19 amid public frustration over isolating would be like 'turning off the smoke alarm' as fresh Covid cases top 30,000 daily.
Reports today suggested ministers have asked for the app's sensitivity to be altered.
Currently, people are pinged after 15 minutes of close contact with an infected person who later tests positive and alerts the app - such as sitting next to their table in a bar.
But reports claim the app could be fine-tuned so someone would need to be near an infected case much longer before it alerts nearby users' apps.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Times Radio today the changes to the app could happen as early as July 19.
He said: "As we move to this next phase after July 19, the scientists continue to provide the recommendations, the advice that sit behind the app and then decides on for example, what distance of when it should ping.
"And of course that will be able to be updated in line with the new social distancing guidance and the rest of it."
However he echoed leaders pleas to Brits not to delete the app in frustration.
Labour's Keir Starmer earlier this week warned people may delete the app rather than risk having to cancel a holiday.
Mr Shapps told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "You shouldn't ignore this because it is vital information.
"People should want to know if they have been in contact with somebody with coronavirus. You don't want to be spreading it around. It can still harm people.
