Vital that Government uses second lockdown to fix test and trace - Justin Madders

Justin Madders MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to test and trace figures, said:

“Ministers know that we won’t get on top of the virus unless we see a better performing system. Despite the flurry of government announcements on testing this week we haven’t heard a single proposal on how they are going to fix contact tracing.

“It is absolutely vital they use this time in the second lockdown to finally fix test and trace.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• 131,136 (40.1%) of close contacts of people with Covid-19 were not reached by the system in the week to October 28.
• Just 59.9% of cases in England being reached and told to self-isolate to stop the spread of the virus - down from 60.6% for the previous week.
• More than 40% of people who have been in contact with someone testing positive for the virus have not been reached – and therefore not told to self-isolate for 14 days. A total of 131,136 known people were not reached in that week, so they may have been spreading the virus asymptomatically.
• More than half a million people have not been reached since the service began.
• Source: Weekly test and trace statistics, GOV.UK