Calderdale health protection teams 'do better in tracing Covid-19 contacts’

Local health protection teams continue to be more successful than call centre workers at reaching close contacts of people who have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the latest data.

Test and Trace figures from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) show that, for cases handled by local teams, 98 per cent of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached and asked to self-isolate.

By contrast, for those cases handled either online or by call centres, 56.1 per cent of close contacts have been reached and asked to self-isolate.

NHS Test and Trace has two ways of handling cases depending on their complexity.

Public Health England local health protection teams manage so-called “complex” cases linked to outbreaks, with examples including someone who works or has recently visited a hospital, care home, prison or school for people with special needs.

And for other cases, referred to as so-called “non-complex” cases, these are reached either online or by call centre.

The figures were published amid concerns about the effectiveness of the operation, with experts warning that the NHS Test and Trace system must rapidly improve to cope with the pressures expected once schools fully return in September and as winter approached.

Calderdale Council, one of the three areas where lockdown restrictions were reimposed last week, revealed on Wednesday that it is launching its own test and trace scheme to plug the holes in the £10bn national system.

It hopes its local contact tracing system will be in place in the coming days and will use the authority’s knowledge of local communities to reach more people.

Neighbouring Kirklees Council is in the early stages of deciding whether to launch its own service to complement the national system, while Bradford council is in talks with Government about setting up its own team.

Boris Johnson repeated his claim that the national system was “world-beating”, telling reporters yesterday during a visit to the North West: “If you look at what we are doing, actually I think it certainly is – it certainly does fit that description of ‘world-beating’.

“I think I’m right in saying that we are now testing more – per head of population – than virtually any other country in Europe, certainly, in America they are testing a huge number of people.”

He said the test and trace system was “absolutely crucial” for the Government’s coronavirus strategy.

“If you look at what we are doing with some of the local social distancing measures that we are bringing back in, that’s entirely driven by our ability to detect cases through local test and trace, working with our local authorities and taking the right local measures,” he said.