Only two-thirds of COVID cases transferred to English tracing system in latest week

[October 08, 2020]  LONDON (Reuters) - Only two-thirds of positive COVID-19 cases were referred to England's test and trace system in the latest weekly figures, health service statistics showed on Thursday, as Britain struggles to contain a second wave of the coronavirus.

The statistics come after the robustness of the test-and-trace system was called into question by a glitch which delayed the upload of nearly 16,000 cases into computer systems, including for contact tracers.

NHS Test and Trace said that 51,475 people tested positive for COVID-19 between Sept 24 and Sept 30, a 56% increase on the previous week, but only 34,494 people were transferred to the tracing system in the same week.

The glitch, which was identified on Oct. 2 and reported publicly two days later, was the latest setback for a test and trace system which Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised would be world beating.

Although 74% of those transferred to the system were reached to provide information about their contacts in the latest weekly statistics, up from 71.3% the previous week, only 68.6% of 101,782 identified contacted were reached, down from 71.6% and well below the target of 80%.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Kate Holton and William James)

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