HUNDREDS fewer people in Warrington were contacted by the NHS Covid-19 app in the latest week, following a change aimed at cutting isolation alerts.

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.

From today, Monday, those fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will no longer have to self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.

The latest available NHS figures show 947 people in Warrington were pinged by the Covid app in the week to August 4.

READ> The latest Covid case and hospital admission statistics for Warrington

That was a decrease from the 1,166 alerts sent out the week before.

The app has been updated meaning fewer contacts are now being instructed to isolate, after the lifting of lockdown restrictions led to a huge increase in the number of people being contacted – a so-called ‘pingdemic’.

While isolation is not mandatory for people pinged, anyone who is contacted and told to self-isolate by the NHS Test and Trace service has a legal obligation to do so – although from today this will only apply to those who have not had both jabs.

Separate Department for Health and Social Care figures show contact tracers told 1,245 people in Warrington to self-isolate after being in contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to August 4.

That was down from 1,474 the week before.

READ> Call for more residents to get vaccinated as self-isolation rules change

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 1,349 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 104 contacts were not reached by the service.

Professor Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, said: “While it is reassuring to see loosened restrictions have not caused cases to skyrocket, it is more difficult to predict the future.

“Cases remain relatively low in the fully vaccinated group, which is a sign that vaccines are working and keeping the spread at bay.”