[ad_1]
The NHS Test and Trace system has had its lowest weekly figure since the scheme began, with fewer than 60% close contacts of people testing positive for coronavirus.
Only 59.6% of people in England were reached through the system in the week ending October 14, according to the latest figures.
This is the lowest weekly percentage since it started and is down from 63.0% the previous week.
For cases handled by local health protection teams, 94.8% of the contacts were contacted and asked to self-isolate in the week ending October 14.
For cases handled online or by call centers, 57.6% of close contacts were contacted and asked to isolate themselves.
Only 15.1% of people tested for COVID-19 in England in the week ending October 14 at a regional site, local site, or mobile test unit, known as testing “in person”, they received the result in 24 hours.
This is the lowest weekly percentage since the system was launched, and it’s down 32.8% from the previous week.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously promised that the in-person evidence would be returned within 24 hours at the end of June.
Speaking in the House of Commons on June 3, he made the promise of the end of the month, barring “difficulties with postal proofs or insurmountable problems like that.”
These latest figures, released Thursday morning, come after a record day of new case numbers for the UK was revealed.
In the 24 hours through Wednesday, another 26,688 people tested positive for COVID-19.
This figure was the largest increase since October 4, when 22,961 inflated cases were reported due to a technical failure in the counting system.
In England, meanwhile, Test and Trace figures showed a total of 101,494 people tested positive for the virus at least once in the week through October 14, a 12% increase from the previous week.
It is also the highest weekly number since the system was launched.
Analysis: Figures confirm suspicion of fighting with test and trace capability
By Rowland Manthorpe, Technology Correspondent
Yesterday I discovered a leaked email of Test and Trace bosses, who admitted that the latest increase in cases posed “an immediate challenge to the capability of the Test and Trace service.”
Today’s official figures, showing that the service now reaches less than 60% of contacts in England, confirm that worrying conclusion.
Once cases have reached a certain level, even the best contact tracing system in the world will have a hard time containing them, because it is simply not possible to trace the contact of each new case in time for that work to make a difference. While there may be some regional differences, these latest statistics suggest that we have reached that point in England.
Of course, although the ministers described it as “global”, Test and Trace is not the best system in the world.
Thanks to his uncomfortable mix of local and national services, he has had trouble working efficiently from the start and rarely reaches more than 80% of contacts.
However, while Test and Trace undoubtedly deserves part of the blame for the increase in cases, it is not clear that it is the only culprit. Wales and Scotland have both had publicly run contact tracing services, reporting extremely high levels of contacts (albeit with much weaker statistics), however cases have continued to rise in these countries.
Test and Trace is struggling, but reinventing it, as some would prefer, may not be a cure for all of our problems.
