The NHS test and trace app is “not vital”, a minister has claimed - despite Matt Hancock saying it was the public’s “duty” to download it.
And Health Minister Edward Argar said the test and trace service was unable to contact a third of Coronavirus positive cases because they “simply didn’t feel like picking up the phone”.
In the first week of the service being in operation, 8,117 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England had their case transferred to the NHS system.
Of these, 5,407 (67%) were reached, while 2,710 (33%) did not provide information about their contacts or could not be reached.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Friday, Health Minister Edward Argar said: "Some people won't necessarily have answered their phone, you and I know what it's like if you have flu for example, and Covid-19 is a much much nastier disease than that, you sometimes simply don't feel like answering the phone or responding to much at all."
"This is the first week of this new scheme and I think it has started off very, very well," he added.
Mr Argar said the Government will "continue to chase up those who didn't respond".
He said the NHS app was still being “refined” as it remains under testing on the Isle of Wight.
"It's a complex piece of technology, and we continue to develop it and work to refine it,” he said.
"But, actually, as Dido Harding, who heads up the test, track and trace programme, has said, in a sense, the app is the cherry on the cake for this programme."
He added: "It is the human contact. It is the tracing that's been done ... that is the core part of making this programme work.
"So, the app has the potential, in the future, to be another step forward.
"But, it isn't the vital part of it.
"The vital part of it is this human tracing that we have already got running."
When the app was first announced on 5 May, Matt Hancock said the app would be crucial in getting “our liberty back.”
"What I can tell you is that if you download the app then you are doing your duty and you are helping to save lives, and you’re helping to control the spread of the virus,” he said.
