The UK fired 6,000 coronavirus contacts who were “paid to watch Netflix” after decay amid control of Britain’s failure by the UK NHS Test and Trace program to reach swaths of people who positive testing for COVID-19.
CORONAVIRUS has infected more than 20 million people worldwide
The remaining 12,000 workers will now be sent to work with local public health authorities in the search, the Department of Health and Social Care announced Monday.
Authorities plan to open more than 200 travel centers around the country in October to add to more than 200 mobile tests already in place.
Officials hope a more localized approach will repair the flawed national system, which workers rely on outdated information and ineffective methods that have difficulty reaching even a fraction of the contacts exposed to COVID-19.
In early June, a clinician with the NHS Test and Trace program on the condition of anonymity told the BBC that despite 4,456 confirmed COVID-19 cases reported to the Test and Trace scheme within a three-day period after launching the program on May 28, she had yet to be assigned a single case.
“I did not contact anyone. I did not contact supervisors. I was literally on the system, repairing the system and entertaining myself while watching Netflix,” the person said.
As of June 3, only 1,749 of the reported people had been infected by tracers, according to local reports.
The slow turnaround prompted frustrated local authorities to set up their own contact trace networks, which have proven more effective because they know communities better and can go from door to door in an emergency.
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Now, months after the pandemic killed more than 46,500 people in the UK – the highest number in all of Europe – national officials are taking the same approach.
The health department said the new system “combines the dedicated local customer with the additional resources and data needed from NHS Test and Trace.”
