Leeds Lifeband - COVID-19 - saving lives, proposing living

The exclusive use of a smartphone-based application risks the digital exclusion of particular societal sub-groups (older people, disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, youth). Such gaps in population coverage will compound risk to these groups and seriously undermine the comprehensiveness of the NHS programme. This project will address these gaps in data arising from the NHS/PHE contact tracing smartphone application by providing a cheap, low-tech and highly secure wristband alternative providing a more complete picture of infection rates; and risks to (and from) population groups such as older people and school children

By consent, the location/proximity data will also enable research, analysis and modelling using large-scale data analytics. This will generate epidemiological insights such as how different population sub-groups are impacted by COVID; how government guidelines create contextual challenges or opportunities, and the effectiveness of local mitigation measures.

The wristband technology has potential use-cases beyond the immediate tracing context, for example informing smart-city planning and reducing environmental/broader population health burdens (Cottril and Derrible, 2015). The project will support the regional economy in the process of recovery, given that only infected individuals and their contacts will need to quarantine.