Head of UK ‘test and trace’ system warns won’t be ‘world-class’ at start

Programme to avert new spike in coronavirus infections set to launch on Thursday

The UK government will on Thursday launch a “test and trace” system designed to identify and isolate Britons infected with coronavirus — but the former corporate executive brought in to oversee the programme admitted it will not be “world-class” from the start.

From Thursday, anyone who tests positive for coronavirus will be contacted by the new programme, NHS Test and Trace, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

Anyone confirmed to have caught the virus will be expected to share information about all recent contacts, including anyone they have been within 2 metres of for more than 15 minutes in the two days before developing symptoms or seven days after. 

With the UK aiming to further ease lockdown restrictions from next week, Dido Harding, head of the test and trace programme and the former chief executive of telecoms group TalkTalk, said the system would enable “the vast majority to be able to get on with our lives in a much more normal way”.

However, Baroness Harding added: “We will continue to test and learn over the next few days and weeks . . . it is not going to be world-class on day one.

The programme, she said, would get “better and better” during the summer “and we will have something that’s really ready to do the job we need it to do as we head into autumn and winter”.

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Prime minister Boris Johnson last week promised a “world-beating” programme by June 1.

Ministers are under pressure to show the tracing scheme is large and agile enough to avert a second coronavirus wave while loosening lockdown measures, amid questions over the speed at which test results are returned and the public’s willingness to comply with the rigorous new measures.

Anyone identified as a contact will be expected to stay at home for 14 days, even if they feel well, to stop the virus spreading. 

Matt Hancock, health secretary, said: “As we move to the next stage of our fight against coronavirus, we will be able to replace national lockdowns with individual isolation and, if necessary, local action where there are outbreaks.” 

Speaking at the daily Downing Street briefing, Mr Hancock said it was the public’s “civic duty” to isolate if contacted by NHS Test and Trace. He added that while the system was currently “voluntary”, it could become mandatory “if that’s what it takes”.

Anyone told to isolate would be eligible for statutory sick pay or, if self-employed, able to claim a grant through the self-employed income support scheme, he said.

However, critics have warned that test results are still taking too long to be returned to people who suspect they have the virus.

The Royal Society’s Data Evaluation and Learning for Viral Epidemics group said on Wednesday that contact-tracing for people living outside the household of confirmed cases “reduces the number of new infections otherwise generated by 5-15 per cent”. To achieve the upper end of that range “the overall test and trace period for contacts” needed to be three days, they said.

Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Mr Johnson said it was the government's “ambition” to ensure coronavirus test results are returned within 24 hours.

“This has gone from a complete standing start to a huge operation and so I don't want to give you an exact deadline to when we will get down to 24 hours, but that is plainly the ambition and we will do it as soon as we can,” he said.