NICOLA Sturgeon has cautioned against relying too much on technology to start ending the coronavirus lockdown.

The First Minister said boots on the ground would be more important in tracing and isolating those with the infection than a new mobile phone app.

The NHS is currently working on a UK-wide contact-tracing app similar to those which have been used successfully in several Asian countries to move out of the lockdown phase.

The app uses a phone’s bluetooth system to log the location whenever two or more people are in close proximity for more than a few minutes.

If one of the group develops symptoms of Covid-19, the other people who have been close to them, and the people who have been close to those people, can be traced and tested.

The aim is to move to a system of selective isolation, rather than a blanket lockdown.

The optional ‘opt-in’ technology, which has alarmed privacy campaigners, requires around 60 per cent of the population to use it to be effective. 

At the Scottish Government daily briefing on coronavirus, Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government was in discussions about the development of the UK-wide app.

However she warned against hailing it as the basis of the next phase of the pandemic.

She said: “I would caution against seeing a proximity app as being the cornerstone of test, trace, isolate. 

“It may well be an important adjunct, and important component, but for an app to be successful like that, you need very, very high numbers of the population to use it properly.

“This is something, through lots of discussions in the last weeks, I’ve come to understand in much more detail.

“We need  to build the test-trace capacity on the basis of people, first of all contact tracers.

“And then, if we have the technological aspect to that, then we build that on to it, as opposed to seeing the technology as the starting point.

“Next week we will set out a paper on test-trace-isolate, trying to deepen people’s understanding of where it sits in the next phase, what the public need to do to make it work, and the steps we’re taking in Scotland to build that capacity.”

Martin Gould, the NHS chief responsible for delivering the new app, has told MPs it could be ready in a fortnight.