The UK government paid 'Love Island' stars to promote its Test and Trace coronavirus tracking program

• Social media influencers, including "Love Island" UK contestants Shaughna Phillips and Chris Hughes, were paid by the UK government to promote Test and Trace, the BBC reported on Monday.
• Test and Trace is a service from the National Health Service to increase contact tracing among people who test positive for the virus.
• Hughes and Phillips were two of the influencers who shared Instagram posts with information about coronavirus testing to their followers on Instagram.

The UK government paid social media influencers, including stars from the reality show "Love Island", undisclosed amounts to promote its Test and Trace service, the BBC reported on Monday.

Test and Trace is a service provided by the National Health Service to test individuals who have symptoms of the coronavirus and trace close recent contacts of anyone who tests positive.

As a part of a wider campaign to inform the public about it, the government confirmed it paid social media stars to share posts about the contact tracing service.

"Our use of social media influencers has meant over 7 million people have been reached," a government spokesman told the BBC. "This is just one part of a wider campaign utilizing TV, radio, social, print, and other advertisements to ensure that the public has the information it needs."

Costs involved with the campaign will be published on gov.uk in the coming weeks, the BBC reported.

Several influencers from the British dating reality TV show "Love Island" were asked to put paid Instagram posts on their feeds, including Shaughna Phillips, a former contestant on the show.

Phillips shared a post, marked as an ad, to her 1.5 million followers with the hashtags #letsgetback and #gettested.

In her post, Phillips writes about "the importance of coronavirus testing" and tells her fans to "get a free test by calling 119 or visiting NHS.uk" if they experience symptoms of the virus.

Chris Hughes and Josh Denzel, also former contestants on "Love Island", shared similar posts. Both Hughes and Denzel have more than 1 million followers each.

According to Captiv8, social media influencers with more than 1 million followers can earn up to $20,000 for posting ads on their feed, the BBC reported.

As of this week, Test and Trace has reached 75.5% of close contacts in England within 72 hours, which is below the target of 80%, the Guardian reported.