HUNDREDS of people in Flintshire and Wrexham 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 630 people in Flintshire were "pinged" by the Covid app in the week to July 21 – the latest available data.

That was a decrease from the 784 alerts sent out the week before.

In Wrexham, NHS figures show 547 people were "pinged" by the Covid app in the week to July 21.

That was a decrease from the 716 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% 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.

The Welsh Government has said it will also ease restrictions on isolation in August, although an exact date has not been set.

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.”

The Government said it was expanding its daily contact testing for frontline sectors who are exempt from isolation.

Around 260 sites across the country are available for people working in prisons, waste collection, defence, the food industry, transport, Border Force and police and fire services.

A further 800 are in the process of being set up, with 1,200 more due to be established in the coming days.

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.

The Leader previously reported that a supermarket boss has said it has been forced to shut shops and reduce hours in what is ‘quite a serious situation’.

Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, told Radio 4’s Today Programme they have over 1,000 staff off who have been ‘pinged’.

He said staff absence rates are now double the usual number, with the figure rising 50 per cent week on week as more people are told to self-isolate by the NHS app.

Similarly, Ranjit Singh Boparan, of the 2 Sisters Food Group which employs hundreds of employees in North Wales, warned the Government needed to act or face the “most serious food shortages that this country has seen in over 75 years”.