UK plans for contact-tracing in doubt as app not ready until June

Deputy chief scientific adviser suggests track-and-trace stopped in March due to lack of capacity

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Plans to introduce coronavirus tracing have been hit by fresh uncertainty as it emerged that a mobile tracking app will not be ready until June.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said last week that the app would be rolling out in mid May" across England, but on Tuesday ministerial sources tried to downplay a system considered critical to control the disease as the country emerges from lockdown.