How many people in Horsham are being 'pinged' by the Covid app

NHS figures show 737 people were alerted via the app in the seven days to June 30. It was 1385 in the seven days to July 7 – an 87 per cent increase.

At Prime Minister’s Questions on July 7, Labour leader Keir Starmer warned that large numbers of people could soon be asked to self-isolate, with major consequences for businesses.

He said: “How many people will be asked to self-isolate if there are 100,000 cases a day?”

On Friday the Glebe Surgery in Storrington urged patients to only call for urgent medical reasons because a ‘significant number’ of staff at the GP surgery were self-isolating. See the full story here.

And last week, luxury car maker Rolls-Royce said it was ‘extremely concerned’ by the number of employees at its West Sussex site being ‘forced to self-isolate’ by the NHS Covid app. Read more here.

Mid Sussex also saw increases in the number of people receiving alerts from the Covid app, with a 62 per cent jump – 1847 people were ‘pinged’ in the seven days to July 7. The number was 1139 the previous week.

And Crawley saw a 77 per cent rise, with 486 people alerted in the week to June 30, rising to 860 in the week to July 7.