THOUSANDS of people in Warrington were contacted by the NHS Covid-19 app and told to isolate in the latest week, figures reveal.

The app warns people that they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.

People contacted through the app are advised to isolate for up to 10 days, although there is no legal obligation to do so.

NHS figures show 2,069 people in Warrington were ‘pinged’ by the Covid app in the week to July 21 – the latest available data.

That was an increase from the 1,809 alerts sent out the week before.

Thousands more ‘pinged’ by Covid app and told to self-isolate in Warrington (Image: PA)

Thousands more ‘pinged’ by Covid app and told to self-isolate in Warrington (Image: PA)

Across England and Wales, nearly 700,000 alerts were sent to Covid app users in the latest seven-day period – a record high and 11 per cent more than the previous week.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has urged people to isolate if they are advised to do so, saying there ‘isn’t very long to go’ until August 16, when all fully vaccinated contacts in England who test negative can avoid isolation.

He said: “I appreciate that it is a significant number of people and it can be frustrating, but the app is doing what we asked of it.”

But while isolation is not mandatory for people pinged by the Covid app in England, anyone who is contacted and told to self-isolate by the NHS Test and Trace service has a legal obligation to do so.

Separate Department for Health and Social Care figures show contact tracers told 2,766 people in Warrington to self-isolate after being in contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to July 21.

That was up from 2,271 the week before.

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Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

The figures show 2,988 people who came into close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 in Warrington were transferred to Test and Trace in the latest week.

It means 222 contacts were not reached by the service.

Across England, more than 295,000 cases were transferred to the contact tracing system between July 15 and 21, with 597,000 people identified as coming into close contact with someone who had tested positive.

The Government said it was expanding its daily contact testing for frontline sectors who are exempt from isolation.