Tracers miss a third of Covid-19 contacts

A third of people who had close contact with a coronavirus victim in Sunderland are still not being reached by the test and trace system, figures suggest.

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows that 11,493 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Sunderland were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 23 – with 564 new cases in the last seven-day of that period.

This has led to 23,043 close contacts being identified over the seven months – but just 66.8% of those were reached.

That means 7,655 people were not reached by tracers and told to self isolate.

That was an improvement on the 65.5% of close contacts reached in the period to December 16.

Nationally, 92.5% of contacts were reached and told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace in the latest week to December 23.

Local health protection teams deal with cases linked to settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons and the contact rate including these cases was 92.6%, in line with the week before.

Around 212,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 23.

Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

Nationally, in the week between December 17 and 23, 181,910 people who tested positive were reached, 58,398 more than the previous week – with 377,459 close contacts successfully reached – 110,801 more than the previous week.