WE MUST PASS THE TEST
Virus tracing system ‘absolutely critical’ for North East, says health chief
THE NHS Test and Trace system is “absolutely critical” for the North East and it is vital that people abide by it, a doctor has warned.
Dr George Rae, North East chairman for the British Medical Association, says the region still has the highest coronavirus infection rate and it is therefore important that the ‘test,track and isolate’ system works.
He also says members of the public need to abide by it to help the country ease out of lockdown.
He added: “The continued protection of the public’s health and suppression of the coronavirus as we come out of lockdown is absolutely paramount.
“What I very strongly feel is that local public health expertise has got to be used to plan and implement the ‘test, track and isolate’ system in all areas.
“According to the latest data, the North East still has the highest rate of infection in the country - and that has been the case for three or for weeks.
“It’s important to have local input into the system so that when people in the North East are getting information saying you’ve got to self-isolate, or if there’s a spike in infections or a cluster and we have to take a step back because of the R factor, local people can be confident and trust the information that’s given.
“Therefore, it’s absolutely imperative that coming out of the lockdown, we don’t allow things to move in the other direction.
“Local public health experts will be planning and implementing ‘test, track and isolate’ and the data will be shared.
“If people are getting information that they have got to isolate, it would be really sad if they did not abide by that.
“One thing we are all trying to ensure is that the country doesn’t go into a second wave. If that did happen, it would be really serious. It would be late in the year and we would also be getting things like the flu epidemic as well.
“This ‘test, track and isolate’ system is critical and it has got to work for us. It will work if people abide by it.”
Meanwhile, fears have been raised that the UK is “weeks behind” where it should be with coronavirus testing and tracing.
The NHS Test and Trace system has been rolled out across England with the help of 25,000 contact tracers.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, said the Government had commissioned local authority plans “awfully late”.
He told the PA news agency: “We think it has been very unhelpful for the Government to say there will be a world-class test and trace system in place on June 1 because that was never going to be the case.
“One of the questions that needs to be asked is how much of a risk is being run without having the local plans in place?
“As soon as you start to ease lockdown, the risk of the virus spreading grows and you’d want to ensure which I think the Government has specifically said - that you’d have an effective test and tracing system in place with comprehensive universal geographic coverage that you could really trust.
“You’d want to ensure it is robust before you start easing lockdown too dramatically.”
He said while work on introducing the system was progressing “at pace”, the UK was “weeks behind where we really ought to be”.