Coronavirus: Weekly COVID-19 cases in England down – but test and trace misses 80% target for ninth consecutive week
Written by News on 27/08/2020
The number of weekly COVID-19 cases in England has declined for the first time since July – but the government has missed its test and trace target for the ninth week running.
The target of reaching and isolating 80% of people who have come into contact with coronavirus was set by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) – but only around 75.5% of close contacts in England were reached in the week ending 19 August.
But figures from the government’s NHS Test and Trace operation have revealed a total of 6,115 people tested positive in the week from 13 to 19 August – 8% lower than the week before and the first decrease since the beginning of July.
Despite falling short of the target, the number of people contacted through the test and trace system still increased during the week to 19 August to 7,941, in part due to an operational delay the week before.
Of these, 72.6% were reached and asked to provide information about their contacts, compared to 79% the week before, the government said.
A total of 75.5% of people who were in close contact with those who were initially contacted were reached.
Since the NHS contact tracing system was launched in late May, 65,398 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in England have had their cases transferred to it.
Of these cases, 50,876 people (77.8%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts while 12,851 (19.7%) were not reached.
A further 1,671 people (2.6%) could not be reached because their communication details had not been provided.
From the 50,876 people who were reached, 246,262 of their close contacts were then successfully contacted and told to self-isolate.
That is 80.6% out of a total of 305,752 people who were identified as close contacts.
The remaining 59,463 people (19.4%) could not be contacted.
:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
Bradford in West Yorkshire has had the lowest proportion of people being successfully contacted through test and trace, with just a 43% success rate for contacts handled online or by call centres since the operation started.
The next lowest were Middlesbrough and Peterborough, with 47%, Blackburn with Darwen and the City of London & Hackney was at 48%, while Nottingham and Oldham were both at 49%.
(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Weekly COVID-19 cases in England down – but test and trace misses 80% target for ninth consecutive week
