A new tracking app suggests coronavirus arrived in the UK long before the first person was confirmed to have the disease.
The Covid-19 symptom tracker currently asks 2.6 million users to share how they’re feeling and any symptoms every day, even if they are well.
And, while this is unconfirmed, hundreds of respondents have reported feeling coronavirus symptoms in January, and some back in December, according to Tim Spector, Professor Genetic Epidemiology at King's and scientist working on the app.
He told the Sunday Times : “The reports I am getting are from people who were ill from early January onwards and strongly suggest they had Covid-19 but were not recognised as such.”
It wasn’t until January 31 that the virus was confirmed to be in the UK after two people tested positive in York.
Scientists at King’s College London designed the tracking app with the hope of helping the UK fight the disease.
The app also suggests the lockdown has had a significant positive impact.
Estimated cases are down by 80% today to 354,690 compared with 2.1 million on April 1, which, it is believed, was the peak.
This isn’t the only example of technology helping to combat this disease.
The NHS’s own digital arm, NHSX, is working on a tracker that will alert users if they have come into contact with people who have then developed symptoms.
It will apparently be ready to use within weeks, but will rely on 60 per cent of the population downloading it to be fully effective.
Anyone using the current tracking app, is asked to enter how they’re feeling every day.
Data gathered includes whether they have had a test, where they are based and, if they say they’re aren’t feeling well, what their symptoms are.
It’s highlighted four hotspots in the UK - in Pendle and Hyndburn in Lancaster, in Nuneaton near Coventry and Blaenau Gwent, Wales.
The Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons, NHS Scotland and NHS Wales have all endorsed the app.
NHS England have not, but this may be because they are waiting to endorse the upcoming NHSX app.
An Oxford University study also claimed the virus was in the UK for around a month before it was first confirmed to be here.
Scientists estimated the virus was spreading around the UK from around mid-January.
Between January 1 and 24, there were 17 direct flights from Wuhan to the UK, and many more from Italy.
