"We are at a critical juncture of the pandemic, we mustn’t let up now" say NHS Providers

Responding to the latest figures from NHS Test and Trace, the chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, said:

“We’ve arrived at a critical moment in the course of the pandemic.

“New variants pose the greatest threat to our efforts to control COVID-19 and the rising number of cases of the South African and Indian variants is a worrying development.

“There will understandably be a renewed focus on the NHS Test and Trace system now to see how effective it is at containing these outbreaks. It is positive that there are fewer people catching the virus, but we continue to see worrying gaps in the number of cases transferred into the test and trace system and the proportion of these that are then reached.

“If we want this lockdown to be our last, it is vital that everyone observes the rules on social contact, gets tested as needed and self isolates when waiting for test results and in the event of a positive test.

“We know that if this doesn’t happen, infection numbers will rise again despite the success of the vaccination programme so far, as we have seen in other countries such as India.”