LONDON (UK) – The UK health ministry said on Thursday that less than three-quarters of close contacts of coronavirus infection cases identified by England’s test and trace system were reached, marking a dip in the proportion of people reached.
As the test and trace initiative of England completes four weeks, the health ministry said as many as 23,028 people were marked as close contacts of positive cases and out of the lot, 16,804 (73%) were reached.
In the earlier week, 84% people were reached.
Test and trace is essential to spot new outbreaks of the infection as England emerges from its lockdown.
Earlier this week, lockdown was implemented in the English city of Leicester because of a surge in COVID cases. This comes in the wake of England bracing to ease restrictions on Saturday.
Dido Harding, Executive Chair of NHS Test and Trace, said: “We have seen significant improvements in the time it takes to process test results, an important step to rapidly reach the contacts of those testing positive and ask them to self-isolate to prevent them spreading the virus further.”
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field