By Sammie Jones-
The Evergreen Health app, which enables users to monitor their health, wellbeing and fitness has revealed Middlesborough as the county where most people are violating Britain’s lockdown rules. The heat map states that around 25 per cent of survey respondents from Middlesbrough said they are not staying indoors, followed by 18.2 per cent in North Hertfordshire and 17.7 per cent of people in Burnley.
The app concluded the best-performing areas to be the people of Ryedale, North Yorkshire, at 98.2 per cent; Wandsworth in southwest London and Adur in West Sussex, both on 97.5 per cent, followed by Richmond-upon-Thames and Powys, Wales, at 97.1 per cent. Respondents were also asked about symptoms of Covid-19, such as whether they have a dry cough or a temperature and if they are self-isolating, as well as any details about recovery.
The anonymised data is currently being shared with the NHS and data scientists at the universities of Liverpool and Manchester to help them analyse the progress of the pandemic
The app’s developers said for an area of the country to appear on the map, it had to have enough people in the sample sizes for the percentages quoted to be statistically significant.A heat map has revealed where in the UK people are breaking coronavirus lockdown measures. It has shown people in Middlesbrough are most likely to flout the “stay at home” rules designed to curb the spread of Covid-19.
As of April 2, around 25% of survey respondents from Middlesbrough said they are not staying indoors, followed by 18.2% in north Hertfordshire and 17.7% of people in Burnley, the Evergreen Health app found.
More than 26,700 Evergreen Health users responded to a survey on their behaviour during the pandemic to help the app build up a “heat map” of how well different parts of the UK are sticking to the rules.
“Respondents are supporting a better understanding of the local experience of Covid-19 disease through sharing their data, which will be incredibly useful to national and local planning,” said Dr Ian Hall, from the University of Manchester.
The app was launched in 2015 in partnership with the NHS. It allowed users to have access to all their health records, as well as inputting their own fitness and wellbeing data, such that all the information was in one place. The app now has over 750,000 users.
Dr Hall said: “This is an exciting emerging data stream and I look forward to helping interpret the data, with colleagues in Manchester and Liverpool, as it provides situational awareness to users and policymakers alike.”
This weekend, several local councils made the decision to close parks and other public spaces when thousands of people turned out to enjoy the sunshine and warmer weather.
Image: evergreen