Coronavirus: NHS test-and-trace system 'not yet at gold standard' as government admits one third infected didn't provide contacts

Dido Harding says swift set-up of scheme was 'extraordinary', but admits it is not 'perfect'

The head of England’s coronavirus test and trace programme has admitted the system is not yet “gold standard”, as new figures showed that a third of people testing positive failed to provide details of their recent contacts.

Statistics released by the Department of Health showed that in the first seven days of the scheme, some 8,117 people were referred to tracers after testing positive, of whom just 5,407 provided details of the people they had been in close contact with in recent days.

A total of 31,794 contacts were identified, and tracers managed to reach 26,985 of them - around 85 per cent - to tell them to self-isolate for 14 days in case they were themselves infected and in danger of spreading the disease further.

Conservative peer Dido Harding, who was appointed by Boris Johnson to head the programme, admitted it was not yet "perfect" but said it was now a "functioning service".

"We are not yet at the gold standard where we want to be, isolating all contacts within 48 hours of someone requesting a test, but you can absolutely see the path of how we get there," she said.

To be effective scientists and experts have said a test and trace system must contact and isolate 80 per cent of people who have been in close proximity to someone infected with Covid-19.

Mr Johnson previously promised to have a "world-beating" programme up and running by the end of May, and some 25,000 tracers were recruited.

Baroness Harding said she was encouraged that the "vast majority" of contacts who spoke to tracers were willing to go into self-isolation, with some thanking callers for alerting them to the fact that they were now a risk to family and workmates.

She was unable to say how many of the total number of people infected with coronavirus were being referred to the scheme, as many of them may be asymptomatic and unaware that they are carrying the disease.

But she said: "It's early days, but it's encouraging that we are able to reach contacts and able to reach them reasonably quickly.

"I think we are where we said we would be. We have a functioning service."

Lady Harding was unable to say when the NHSX app, designed to automatically identify contacts and being trialled in the Isle of Wight, would come into operation nationwide.

But she insisted it was not essential to the test and trace programme: "I have repeatedly said this is the cherry on the cake. not the cake itself. And what you're seeing today is the baking of the cake is going reasonably well."

Executive chair of NHS Test and Trace, Baroness Dido Harding, speaks during a daily news conference on 27 May (10 Downing Street/Reuters)

The figures, from the Department of Health and Social Care, cover the period May 28 to June 3.

Of the 8,117 infected people identified as having tested positive for coronavirus, some 5,407 provided details of people they had been in close contact with. The remaining 2,710 included some people who tracers were unable to reach within the seven days and others who were spoken to but failed to provide details of their contacts.

Most (79 per cent) of the infected people reached were contacted within 24 hours, 14 per cent between 24-48 hours and 3 per cent between 48-72 hours, while the others took longer to find.

While 26,985 (85 per cent) of contacts agreed to self-isolate, a further 4,809 (15 per cent) either proved impossible to track down or refused to take the advice to stay at home and avoid contacts with others for 14 days.

Lady Harding said: "Is it perfect? No Is there stuff we need to do better? Yes. But it is absolutely fit for purpose and it will get better."