NHS unable to trace contacts of third of people

Data from the first full week of the new contact-tracing scheme has revealed that 33 per cent of those who have tested positive for the coronavirus have not provided details of people they have been close to and may have infected.

Of the 8,117 positive cases referred to the new contact tracers, they had succeeded in reaching 5,407 who had been willing to give them names and phone numbers for the people they had met in the previous two days.

The tracers had reached 85 per cent of those contacts (just shy of 27,000 people) and asked them to self-isolate. There were a further 4,809 that they either failed to reach or failed to persuade to stay at home.

Dido Harding, the chair of the NHS Test and Trace service, said she was heartened by the public’s willingness to cooperate, but the scheme would need to do better. Health Secretary Matt Hancock also expressed pleasure at the ‘huge impact’ that the system had in its first week. He went on to say that it was the public's ‘civic duty’ to follow instructions given by contact tracers.

Harding said: “Tens of thousands of people have engaged with NHS Test and Trace in its first week, either by taking a test if they’ve got symptoms or sharing their contacts if they test positive and then following the advice to self-isolate if they’ve been contacted. We clearly have got more to do to make sure that we reach everyone.”