How other countries controlled outbreaks

HI-TECH contact-tracing systems have controlled coronavirus outbreaks across Asia.

Teams of health officials working with contact-tracing apps have quickly reached suspected cases in China, Singapore and South Korea.

In Europe, Germany has a functioning app but relies mainly on highly professional and well-staffed teams calling the recently diagnosed patient and asking them to detail their movements.

Civil servants were redeployed to public health while extra staff were quickly employed directly to support local contact-tracing officials. Similar operations have succeeded in keeping infections low in Australia and New Zealand.

These countries built on existing expertise whereas in the UK the Government sidelined local public health teams with experience of contact-tracing infectious diseases.

Instead, for the bulk of NHS Test and Trace the UK uses unskilled call centre staff employed on the cheap via outsourcing firms such as Serco.

At the same time efforts to develop an app to compliment contact-tracing teams had to be scrapped after it was found not to work in an the Isle of Wight trial.