MORE than 10,000 people across Dorset were contacted by the NHS Covid-19 app and told to isolate in the latest week, figures reveal.

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.

NHS figures show 6,468 people in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole were "pinged" by the Covid app in the week to July 21 – the latest available data.

That was an increase from the 5,034 alerts sent out the week before.

Meanwhile, 4,072 people in Dorset were "pinged" by the Covid app in the week to July 21 – an increase from the 3,157 alerts sent out the week before.

Across England and Wales, nearly 700,000 alerts were sent to Covid app users in the latest seven-day period – a record high and 11 per cent more than the previous week.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has urged people to isolate if they are advised to do so, saying there “isn’t very long to go” until August 16, when all fully vaccinated contacts in England who test negative can avoid isolation.

He said: “I appreciate that it is a significant number of people and it can be frustrating, but the app is doing what we asked of it.”

But while isolation is not mandatory for people “pinged” by the Covid app in England, anyone who is contacted and told to self-isolate by the NHS Test and Trace service has a legal obligation to do so.

Separate Department for Health and Social Care figures show contact tracers told 3,852 people in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole - 2,593 people in wider Dorset- to self-isolate after being in contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to July 21.

The figures show 4,358 people who came into close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole were transferred to Test and Trace in the latest week - 2,919 in wider Dorset.

The figures do not include those told to isolate in specific settings such as schools and prisons.

Daily negative test results will enable eligible workers who have been alerted by the NHS Covid-19 app or called by NHS Test and Trace as coronavirus contacts to continue working.

Plans to allow fully-vaccinated travellers from the EU and the US to enter the UK without the need to self-isolate for two weeks have also been announced.