U.K. Sends Contact Tracers Door-to-Door to Track Spread of Virus

The centralised army of officials in U.K. tasked with contact tracing will be replaced by locally-based teams.

Tim Ross

11 Aug 2020, 01:32 PM IST

U.K. Sends Contact Tracers Door-to-Door to Track Spread of Virus

A stack of NHS Test and Trace forms sit on a table at The Moon Under Water pub in London, U.K. (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government is overhauling England’s much-criticized program of testing and tracing the movements of coronavirus patients in an attempt to get a grip on the outbreak ahead of a potential surge in infections.

The centralized army of officials tasked with finding people who’ve come into contact with Covid-19 patients will be replaced by locally-based teams who can knock on doors in their neighborhoods, the government announced.

The change will take effect on Aug. 24, and the NHS Test and Trace service will reduce its staff capacity from 18,000 to 12,000. Local officials will be deployed to tell anyone deemed at risk of having come into contact with virus patients to isolate at home.

How the U.K.’s Test-and-Trace Coronavirus Program Works

The shift to a localized approach reflects concern that the tracing program so far is not reaching enough potential Covid cases to be effective at preventing another mass outbreak in the U.K.. Recent figures showed teams reached only 72% of people identified as having come into close contact with confirmed Covid-19 cases.

Johnson Says U.K. Virus-Tracing ‘World Beating’ Despite Misses

Government officials fear that the virus is at risk of spreading rapidly again, as ministers strive to avoid another economically damaging national lockdown.

“We have always been clear that NHS Test and Trace must be local by default,” said Dido Harding, executive chair of NHS Test and Trace. “As we learn more about the spread of the disease, we are able to move to our planned next step and become even more effective in tackling the virus.”

Johnson Raises Specter of New U.K. Lockdown as Virus Reignites

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he does not want to impose another full national lockdown and instead is focusing on targeting local restrictions at areas where the virus flares up. But unless there is a clear picture from the tracing service of where the virus has spread, the risks is that local lockdowns won’t contain the disease and wider action may be needed again.