6,000 missing Covid carriers have still not been traced
Hancock admits health officials do not know how many contacts of positive cases they need to find
‘There are potentially thousands of people who could be wandering around not knowing they were exposed to the virus who could be infecting people’
ALMOST 6,000 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have yet to be traced following the testing fiasco that saw 16,000 cases “lost” in the system.
Call handlers are still trying to reach thousands of positive cases, some of whom received their test results nearly two weeks ago, to obtain details of those they may have exposed to the virus.
Last night, Labour urged ministers to “get a grip” on the test and trace service, as the Health Secretary admitted health officials still do not know how many contacts they need to track down.
Yesterday, the Department of Health said 63 per cent of the missing cases who tested positive between Sept 24 and Oct 1 had been reached and asked to supply details of their contacts.
But ministers were unable to say how many of their contacts had been reached and given advice to self-isolate – in some cases long after they were exposed to the virus.
The Government’s Sage scientific advisory group advises that for contact tracing to be effective, isolation of close contacts should start within 48 hours of a positive result.
Those contacted are normally told to isolate for up to 14 days, depending on when they were exposed to risk.
But some of the details now being handed over involve those whose contact was so long ago that the 14 days has already elapsed, or is close to doing so.
Some will be told to isolate for a matter of days – despite spending weeks in normal circulation, when they were at greatest risk of spreading the virus.
Yesterday, Matt Hancock said the Government did not yet know how many contacts had been traced, and given advice to isolate.
On average, those who test positive for Covid have three close contacts each. This means that the 16,000 cases which became stalled in the system due to outdated software will have had contact with a total of around 50,000 people.
Mr Hancock said: “The total number of contacts depends on how many contacts each index case has, so that information will of course be made available in the normal way when it has been completed but you can’t know in advance how many contacts there are because you have to do the interviews with the index cases first.”
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said: “Because of this government’s incompetence, there are potentially thousands of people who have been exposed to the virus who could be wandering around not knowing they were exposed and could be infecting people, and the Health Secretary couldn’t even tell us if they’ve been traced. Ministers urgently need to get a grip of their test and trace service.”
A pregnant woman who caught Covid-19 was only contacted by NHS test and trace eight days after she learnt of her positive result.
Sally Fazeli, from Preston, received the call – asking for details of her contacts and offering advice on self-isolati ng – j ust as her own period of self-isolation was ending.
Ayman Fazeli, her husband, said: “They said on the call, ironically, they knew she was in the vulnerable category by way of being pregnant and that they wanted to get in touch with her as soon as they could.”
Mrs Fazeli, 33, first experienced symptoms on Sept 19, had a test the following day and received notification of the positive result on Sept 21. In that message she was told to isolate for 10 days from the point when the symptoms first appeared.
But she did not receive a call from NHS Test and Trace until Sept 28 – nine days into the self-isolation period.
Her husband, who was listed as one of her contacts, did not receive a call until Oct 1.