Test and protect improves turnaround times but fewer contacts traced than earlier in pandemic
Scotland's Covid contact tracing system improved its turnaround time last week, though fewer contacts are being traced per case compared to earlier in the pandemic.
Test and Protect's latest figures show only 6.1 per cent of cases took more than 72 hours to complete for the week ending July 11, compared to 41.7 per cent of cases in the week ending July 4.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says at least 80 per cent of new cases should have their contacts traced within 72 hours of the case being confirmed.
The system fell below this standard for two weeks as infections surged in late June and early July, prompting opposition parties to claim it was in "disarray".
Despite the recent improvement in turnaround times, the average number of primary contacts identified per case has fallen during Scotland's recent spike in infections.
It went from six contacts per case at the end of May to three in the week ending July 4.
Provisional data for the week ending July 11 shows only two contacts per case were identified. In addition, calls to people who have been told to quarantine as a result of international travel have been paused since June 23.
Last week, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said an extra 100 staff had been brought in to help Test and Protect deal with the increased demand.
At the weekend, Mr Yousaf denied claims the contact tracing script had been altered in order to meet the WHO target.
Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie accused the Government of "corner-cutting" to improve the turnaround times.
She said: "Make no mistake,
Test and Protect is in disarray. It is obvious that the cornercutting that the government has instructed Test and Protect to follow has led to substantially fewer contacts being reached.”
She added: "It's high time that the SNP stop the spin and bluster and get to grips with dealing with this pandemic."
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: "The measures to ensure the Test and Protect system is able to respond to increasing demand are working well and PHS figures published today show a welcome improvement in performance.”