A CHARITY has warned that Scotland's contact tracing app risks older people "being kept out of the loop due to technology barriers".
More than 700,000 people have downloaded the Scottish Government's Protect Scotland app as part of efforts to suppress the spread of Covid-19.
Ms Sturgeon stressed that for the software to be “as effective as possible, to help us in the fight against Covid and also help us live a bit more normally, we need as many people across Scotland to download it and use it”.
She said that “one of the crucial things about it is it helps to reduce the time it takes to notify contacts”, saying it could give “almost immediate notification” to people if someone they had been in contact with had tested positive for Covid-19.
She added: “We’ve got to keep that going, we’ve got to keep the numbers growing, because the more of us who download and use it, the more effective this app will be.”
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But concerns have been raised over the software being unable to work on older mobile phones – raising fears the tool is excluding older people.
Age Scotland's chief executive, Brian Sloan, said: “While we welcome the introduction of the Protect Scotland app and the steps being taken to trace contact with the virus, many older people are at risk of being kept out of the loop due to technology barriers.
“Around half a million over 60s in Scotland don’t have access to the internet and only about a third use smartphones.
"It’s promising news that 700,000 people have already downloaded and are using the app, but we can’t afford to forget about those who will not be able to do so."
He added: “The app will help provide a welcome sense of security while out and about and that will unfortunately not be available to those without access to smartphones.
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“We understand there is also an issue with the app only being compatible with newer mobile phone models, which further limits the number of older people who will be able to download it.
“Mobile phone software is constantly updating but accessibility would be much improved if app developers could enable use of the app on older devices.”
An interim equalities impact assessment into the app will be published by the Scottish Government next week.
Interim deputy chief medical officer Dr Nicola Steedman, said: "With all of the ways that we try to combat Covid, there will be people who are not able to undertake those or benefit from them.
"If we even look at something like face coverings, there's a section of the population who are not able to wear face coverings and therefore can't have that particular element of the protection – that's why we have all these things in our armoury."
She added: "Everyone can try to benefit from as many of those as they possibly can individually. This is a collective endeavour and Protect Scotland the app is part of that.
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"Those of us who are able to use it should be doing that in order to benefit those who actually can't.
"There is going to be an interim equalities impact assessment which will be published next week. We are very aware of any question of this contributing to inequalities."
The First Minister said the concerns would be more valid if the app was "the totally of our test and trace system" but stressed that it was just one important tool.
She added: "We think it's a fairly high percentage that have the phones that support this.
"The issue with older iPhones is not anything to do with the Scottish Government, it's a bit of technology in the iPhone that Apple no longer supports."
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