NHS unable to trace contacts of 33% of people with coronavirus

Tracers took details from 5,407 of 8,117 people who tested positive in scheme’s first week in England

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A third of those who have tested positive for the coronavirus in England have not provided details of people they have been close to and may have infected, data from the first full week of the new contact-tracing scheme has revealed.

Dido Harding, the chair of the NHS Test and Trace service, said she was heartened by the public’s willingness to cooperate, but the scheme would need to do better. Of the 8,117 positive cases referred to contact tracers, they had succeeded in reaching 5,407 who had been willing to give them names and phone numbers for the people they had met in the previous two days.

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