Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely has sought to clarify confusion over the number of downloads of the NHS trace-and-test app during its Island trial.

And he apologised for the confusion over the numbers which was highlighted by the County Press this morning.

He said it was clear there were between 50,000 and 60,000 downloads on the Island and there was still potential for more.

"We want to get between two-thirds and three-quarters of the smartphones that are capable of holding the app, doing so," he said.

The most important thing here is not the numbers but that the Isle of Wight continues its brilliant progress and this. We could still get 90 per cent of potential users downloading the app.

Mr Seely broke down the numbers in this way:

• The total smartphone-owning IW adult population is probably around 90,000.

• The probable uptake of people who will download the app was around 70 per cent. This equates to approximately 63,000 downloads.

• However, the numbers of adult Islanders who can download this NHS app is probably around 80,000 discounting Huawei and older phone users, who can't download it.

• Next, the 73,000 figure used yesterday by Grant Shapps does not mean 73,000 ISLANDERS have downloaded the app. NHSX suspects 80 per cent of the downloads are adult are Islanders. The other 20 per cent may be mainlanders, media, under-16 Islanders or Islanders who may have downloaded the app more than once.

• So that would mean a total of approximately. 50-60k UNIQUE downloads from the Island.

Mr Seely said: "Until we have more numbers, or statisticians provide a more accurate assessment, I would suggest this is as very approximate way of giving context to numbers."

* The County Press is still awaiting a statement from the Department of Health on the statistics and the app's progress.