Coronavirus: UK’s test and trace programme launches today
The UK’s test-and-trace programme, which is intended to drive down the number of coronavirus cases, launches today.
Britain abandoned tracing coronavirus cases in March as the virus took hold in the UK and community transmission became widespread.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to deliver a “world class” system of testing, tracking cases and tracing individuals who may be infected by contact with a virus carrier.
Yesterday, Johnson told the House of Commons Liaison Committee that the “captivity of a tiny minority for a short time will allow us to release 66m people from the current situation”.
The programme, which launches at 9am today, has repeatedly been touted as a key step to move Britain out of lockdown and to restart the economy.
The government has recruited 25,000 tracers who will contact people who have come into close contact with confirmed cases and ask them to self-isolate.
Close contact is described as someone who has come within a metre of a confirmed cases of coronavirus, or someone who has been within one-to-two meters of a confirmed case for more than 15 minutes without wearing protective equipment.
Compliance with the system will be voluntary but fines or sanctions could be introduced if people are not following the guidance, ministers have said.
The government’s tracing app which has undergone a pilot programme on the Isle of Wight is not yet ready to be deployed more widely.
Johnson said the UK’s track-and-trace system “will be getting steadily better to become a truly world-beating test and trace operation in the course of the next days as we go through June”.