Health-Care Workers Struggle to Access U.K. Tracing System

(Bloomberg) --

The U.K.’s coronavirus tracing program was hit by technical problems on the day of its launch, with some health-care workers unable to log-on to the system.

“As with all large scale operations of this kind, some staff did initially encounter issues logging on to their systems and these are rapidly being resolved,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said by email.

The so-called ‘Test and Trace’ service is a key part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to help the British economy return to normality, by helping to control the spread of the virus and allowing for lockdown restrictions to be lifted. Under the program, officials contact people who may have been exposed to someone with the virus, and tell them to self-isolate.

One contact tracer, who asked not to be identified, said they tried to set-up their log-in on the program’s website this morning, but the web page was not working. The person said they hadn’t been assigned a team leader, and didn’t know who to contact to help them.

A nurse, who is providing clinical advice to contact tracers and who also asked to remain anonymous, said they were unable to log on to the system this morning. According to a screen-shot seen by Bloomberg News, an error message appeared saying: “We are aware of a CTAS login issue for NHS professionals; this has been reported as a critical incident.”

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