Dr Hilary Jones has hit out at Brits who ignored social distancing rules yesterday to flock to beaches and accused them of "making a mockery" of attempts to prevent coronavirus from spreading.
The doctor addressed photos from yesterday showing British beaches packed with people who were making the most of the sun yesterday.
Speaking about the NHS' contact tracing app, he pointed out that situations like this showed the major problem with the app.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain today with Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan today, Dr Hilary groaned when they were faced with pictures of packed beaches from yesterday.
Pointing out that it "made a mockery" of the app, he said: "If you test positive for covid-19 and contact tracer says, 'Where have you been in the last few days?' and you say, 'I was on the beach in Bournemouth or Southend-on-Sea amongst those crowds, who do you know who was next to you? You can't possibly trace those people. And that's the problem.
"When people start flouting the social distancing rules and we go out of lockdown in this kind of way, you can't trace those people.
"And how many of those people will have this much flaunted smart phone app on the beach? They won't take the phone on the beach because they don't want it stolen."
Dr Hilary was probed on how the app worked and he confirmed that it wasn't on GPS and worked via bluetooth.
He said: "It picks up if you've been in contact for more than 15 minutes, as I understand it, in close contact with somebody - even outside."
Confirming that it wouldn't include passing someone in a park, he said that it would include sunbathing or sitting next to someone in a park.
Dr Hilary added: "It's anonymous, you wouldn't know who the contact is, so that's one benefit. It's pretty secure as I understand. The bluetooth doesn't run down too quickly.
"However, not everyone has smart phones; the elderly don't often have smart phones."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
