Test and Trace still failing to reach a third of contacts in Shropshire
Nearly a third of close contacts of people with coronavirus are not being reached by the test and trace system in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, new figures show.
Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 5,853 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Shropshire were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 16.
It means 370 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period.
Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.
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This led to 12,551 close contacts being identified over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.
But just 68.7 per cent of those were reached, meaning 3,929 people were not contacted or did not respond.
That was up from the 67.5 per cent reached in the period to December 9.
The data also shows that 4,470 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Telford and Wrekin were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 16 – 267 new cases in the latest seven-day period.
This led to 10,397 close contacts being identified over the period.
But just 67.8 per cent of those were reached, meaning 3,347 people were not contacted or did not respond.
It had risen from the 66.6 per cent reached in the period to December 9
Across England, 92.5 per cent of contacts not managed by local health protection teams were reached and told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace in the latest week to December 16.
Local health protection teams deal with cases linked to settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons.
The contact tracing rate including these cases was 92.6 per cent, down from 92.7 per cent the week before.
Around 139,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 16.
