Test and trace must be up to scratch by the time the month-long lockdown ends or the country will ‘go in circles’, experts warned yesterday.
Scientists said improving the system was the ‘best way for the country to get out of this nightmare’.
They have called for ‘serious concrete plans and quickly’ and to utilise the ‘breathing space’ of lockdown to fix testing.
Four in ten contacts of those who tested positive for the virus are still not being reached.
Scientists said improving the system was the ‘best way for the country to get out of this nightmare’ (stock image used)
That meant at least 113,881 people who were potentially exposed to Covid-19 were not contacted and told to isolate in the last week measured.
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s health spokesman, told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘These four weeks are really important.
‘A lockdown is a blunt tool but it buys you time and we’ve got to get this testing and tracing system fixed.
‘If they can get that testing and tracing system working properly we’ll be in a much stronger place to deal with this virus.’
His calls were echoed by Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health at Edinburgh University. She said: ‘This is an opportunity to fix this. If you look at the last data for test and trace in England, they are only actually reaching around 45 per cent of the index cases within 24 hours so that’s really poor. It is definitely not operating as it should.’
She said she doubted the system would be made ‘perfect’ in just four weeks, but added: ‘It will be better than it currently is I hope, because without that we are just basically kicking the can down the road.
‘We’re going to find ourselves in the same situation – maybe not in four weeks but in eight weeks around new year – if we don’t improve it.’
The Prime Minister promised ‘rapid turnaround tests’ for coronavirus in his speech from Downing Street on Saturday evening.
Frontline workers and vulnerable people living in coronavirus hotspots should be tested every week in a bid to identify asymptomatic carriers and protect those most at risk, Labour has urged the Government.
NHS staff and those working in education, transport, retail and hospitality, as well as at risk groups in areas with high infections, should be given access to rapid saliva tests, the party said.
Labour has urged ministers to use the November lockdown to expand testing and fix contact tracing, saying that a plan to rollout strategic mass testing would give a roadmap for containing the virus.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said ministers should use the four-week period of stringent restrictions to speed up the roll-out of quick testing, deploying it in all high-risk workplaces and high-transmission settings.
Scientists called for ‘serious concrete plans and quickly’ and to utilise the ‘breathing space’ of lockdown to fix testing (stock image used)
He said: ‘Coronavirus is growing with ferocity and urgent action is needed to bring the R below one nationwide which is why Labour urged Boris Johnson to use the opportunity of the half term holiday for a time limited circuit break.
‘This didn’t happen, and Test and Trace have been overwhelmed.
‘Controlling Covid-19 depends on fixing tracing, ensuring the quick turnaround of tests and introducing regular, weekly testing to identify the 70% of carriers who may not have symptoms but can still spread the virus.
‘We have seen rapid saliva tests used effectively in UK universities.
‘The Government has no excuse to delay their introduction across the country and we’re calling on ministers to roll out these testing innovations now, starting with key workers including all NHS staff, those in care homes and those most at risk.
‘Boris Johnson cannot waste the time his late lockdown buys him otherwise all the inevitable sacrifice and economic damage will have been in vain.
‘He must use this time to fix Test and Trace putting local public health experts in control, instigate retrospective contact tracing and expand mass testing using the saliva-based testing innovations our Universities have developed.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that ‘rapid turnaround tests’ for coronavirus will be rolled out in ‘a matter of days’, with the Army being brought in to help distribute the swabs.
He told the Downing Street press conference: ‘We now have the immediate prospect of using many millions of cheap, reliable and above all rapid turnaround tests.’
He added: ‘Over next few days, weeks, we plan a steady but massive expansion in the deployment of these quick turnaround tests, applying them in an ever-growing number of situations from helping women to have their partners with them in labour wards when they’re giving birth, to testing whole towns and even whole cities.’