LONDON (UK) – England’s COVID-19 Test and Trace scheme to be more locally targetted, the government said on Monday. Data suggested that it was not reaching as many contacts of infected people as required.
The scheme jointly operated by the National Health Service (NHS) and private contractors Serco and Sitel was launched in late May, and there has been several concerns regarding the same.
It will lose 6,000 people on August 24, from a total of 18,000 recruited by Serco and Sitel to get in touch with those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and to track those, with whom they have been in recent contact.
The health ministry said in a statement, “As the approach becomes more locally targeted the national service will adjust. NHS Test and Trace will reduce current extra capacity and reduce the number of non-NHS call handlers.”
The new approach will give the local authorities and public health teams more responsibility to trace people. They would have back-up from teams from the national scheme who will in turn be allocated with specific local areas, wherein they can focus their work on.
The health ministry said, “If the dedicated national team cannot make contact with a resident within a set period of time, the local public health officials can use the data provided by NHS Test and Trace to follow up.”
According to the latest data, contact tracers were able to reach just under 80% of people after a positive test, and just under 80% of those provided recent contacts, between August 23 and 29.
Those identified as recent close contacts of infected people has been brought down to 72% from 76% in the previous week.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.