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Coronavirus cases in England have increased by 56% in a week, according to the latest figures from Test and Trace.
Between September 24 and September 30, 51,475 people tested positive for COVID-19, a 56% increase compared to the previous week and the highest total since the program launched in late May.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of the positive cases (34,494 people) were transferred to the contact tracing system.
68.6% of their close contacts were reached, making it the lowest weekly percentage since Test and Trace began and down from 72.5% the week before.
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Local health protection teams were much more successful in reaching close contacts, achieving 97.1% of contacts.
But for cases handled either online or by call centers, only 62.4% of contacts were reached.
About 2.4% of people who used a home test kit received their result within 24 hours, while 26.5% did so within 48 hours.
Follow the new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that showed coronavirus caused three times as many deaths than pneumonia and flu combined in the first eight months of this year.
