England coronavirus track and trace programme to launch tomorrow
The NHS coronavirus track and trace programme will launch tomorrow across England.
Health secretary Matt Hancock described it as an “historic milestone” and that it will play a “big part” in exiting the coronavirus lockdown.
Anyone who has coronavirus symptoms will be able to get tested and will need to tell NHS contact tracers who they have been in close contact with recently.
If the test comes back positive, then anyone who has been in close contact with the infected person will have to self-isolate for 14 days even if they have no symptoms.
Close contact will considered to have been made if someone has been within two metres of someone else for at least 15 minutes without any sort of protective equipment being involved.
The programme will have capacity for 200,000 tests a day.
The programme will be possible thanks to the recruitment of 25,000 contact tracers, which includes 7,000 medical professionals.
Hancock said it was everyone’s “civic duty” to use the test and trace programme if they have coronavirus symptoms.
“Test and trace means we can replace the lockdown with individual isolation for those who have been in contact with the virus and local action where it’s necessary to respond to a flare up,” Hancock said.
“Through testing we hunt down the virus finding out who is infected right now.”
The programme is being overseen by Baroness Dido Harding, who is chair of NHS Improvement.
On a call to journalists today, Harding said that none of the information shared by people with contact tracers would be shared with anyone else and that no lockdown breaches would be reported.
“It’s a safe and trusted environment, so they can honestly tell the tracers who they have been in contact with to protect them,” she said.
She said that the programme will monitor geographical areas to see if there are coronavirus “flare ups” and that local lockdowns may be implemented.
Communities secretary Robert Jenrick told the BBC today that the track and trace programme will be able to identify increases in coronavirus infection rates in towns or cities across England.
“That enables us then to take action in that place which will be restrictive on the individuals who live and work there,” he said.
“But as a result of that we’ll be able to provide greater freedom to millions of other people across the country, enabling us to continue to ease the lockdown, ease the return to school, to work and to the daily activities that we all want to get back to.”
Speaking at Westminster’s liaison committee, Boris Johnson said that the programme meant that some people would have to self-isolate for 14 days even if they don’t have coronavirus.
“It is a huge imposition, but it will be on a very small minority of the population,” he said.
“It’s worth it, because that is the tool other countries have unlocked the prison, to make sure we can go forward.
“That captivity for a tiny minority, for a short time, will allow us gradually to release 66m from the current situation.”