Covid-19: UK test and trace system still missing 80% target for reaching contacts

More than a fifth of people in England who tested positive for covid-19 in the most recent week measured were not reached by the NHS’s test and trace programme, latest figure show.1

Although the head of the programme said there were “sustained improvements” in how it was performing, the figures for the week of 2 to 8 July showed that 21% of the 3579 people who tested positive for covid-19 and whose details were passed to the contact tracing system were not found.

The majority (79%), however, were reached and of those 2815 people, 2201 provided details …