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The government’s “world beating” test and trace service is still failing to reach thousands of Covid-19 patients and their close contacts to ensure they self-isolate.
Figures released on Thursday by the Department of Health and Social Care showed that, between July 23 and July 29, just 72% of positive cases were contacted by NHS Test and Trace, which is chaired by Tory peer Dido Harding.
In turn, contact tracers were only able to reach 72% of Covid-19 patients close contacts.
The numbers represent a percentage fall from the previous week, when 81% of positive cases were reached and 76% of their close contacts were reached.
“The overall percentage of contacts reached has been declining since Test and Trace began,” the government report admits.
Since the service’s launch nine weeks ago, a total of 47,762 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England have had their cases transferred to NHS Test and Trace.
Of this total, 37,231 people (78.0%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts, while 9,032 (18.9%) were not reached.
A further 1,499 people (3.1%) could not be reached because their communication details had not been provided. The figures cover the period May 28 to July 29.
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said the government needed to ensure the service gets better.
She said: “Without an effective test and trace system, the UK’s recovery plan is built on sand. Coronavirus hasn’t gone away, and it continues to threaten our health and our health services.
“We still have little clarity on the government’s strategy. But if they are serious about controlling this pandemic and re-opening schools, they need to get a grip on test and trace.
“The government have already paused the lifting of lockdown once, causing further economic damage to the country. These figures should act as a further giant wakeup call to them.”
The new report also shows that cases handled by local health protection teams had more successful tracing rates, with 98.0% of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 reached and asked to self-isolate over the last nine weeks.
By contrast, for those cases handled either online or by call centres, 56.1% of close contacts have been reached and asked to self-isolate.
Around three in four people (77.9%) who were tested for Covid-19 in the week ending July 29 at a regional site or mobile testing unit – a so-called “in-person” test – received their result within 24 hours.
This is up on 76.4% in the previous week, but down on 90.8% in the week to July 1.
Prime minister Boris Johnson had pledged that, by the end of June, the results of all in-person tests would be back within 24 hours.
He told the House of Commons on June 3 he would get “all tests turned around within 24 hours by the end of June, except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that”.