LONDON: Dido Harding, the head of England's Covid-19 test and trace system, has been told to self-isolate by her own mobile phone app.

"Nothing like personal experience of your own products....got this overnight," she wrote on Twitter on Nov 18 above a graphic from her phone with the message 'You need to self-isolate'.

"Feeling well. Many hours of Zoom ahead," she added.

Harding was appointed to run England's coronavirus tracing programme in May with the task of overseeing a team to locate contacts of those who tested positive for the virus.

However, there was criticism of her appointment because of her limited experience of health care and also as her husband, John Penrose, is a lawmaker from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party.

Official figures showed last week that the proportion of contacts of positive cases reached by her system remained at record lows, with about 60% of contacts reached, well below the 80% target.

Her system has managed to reach Johnson, who was told to self-isolate on Nov 15, and her husband, who received the same instruction from his phone app on Nov 9.

 - Reuters