Test and protect still below WHO target, Health Secretary concedes

Test and Protect is still just shy of the international performance standard but is expected to improve further, the Health Secretary has said.

Humzayousafsaidscotland's contact tracing system has comeunder"extremepressure" due to the recent spike in cases.

He denied claims from opposition parties that the system had "cut corners" in order to improve turnaround times.

As Covid cases surged at the end of June and in early July, Test and Protect fell below the World Health Organisation's (WHO) standard of having 80 per cent of cases closed within 72 hours of an initial infection being confirmed.

The most recent figures, for theweekendingjuly11,showed the turnaround times had improved but fewer contacts were being identified per case than earlier in the pandemic.

Speaking as he visited a drop-in vaccination clinic in Arbroath Mr Yousaf said: "There's no doubt there's been extreme pressure on the Test and Protect system.

"It hasn't performed to the standards we would have liked it to perform, completely understandable given the record number of cases. The action we've taken has seen an improvement now in terms of contact tracing numbers.

"Still shy of the WHO 80 per cent mark, we're getting very, veryclose.iwouldexpectwhen next week's figures come out there's an even better improvement than the week before."

He said the Government is constantly looking to improve performance in the system and therecouldbe"perfectlyunderstandable" reasons for the lowernumberofcontactsidentified per case. Mr Yousaf continued: "We've got a more transmissible variant, and therefore I would expect the performance of Test and Protect hopefully to improvewhenfigurescomeout next week."

On Wednesday, Labour and the Conservatives accused the Government of "cutting corners" in order to meet targets.

Contacttracersarenowusing a shortened interview script focused on high-risk cases and areusingtextmessagestoreach other contacts.

Mryousafclaimedopposition partieshavebeenmaking"mischief " around the issue, adding: "Any decisions to shorten scripts - it's not me that writes the script or decides what the scriptlookslike,it'sdetermined by Public Health Scotland.”