More than a third of close contacts still not being reached by test and trace regime in Northamptonshire

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 13,273 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Northamptonshire were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 2.

That means 1,113 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period.

Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

This led to 30,151 close contacts being identified over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.

But just 63.9% of those were reached, meaning 10,875 people were not contacted or did not respond.

That was up from the 62.4% reached in the period to November 25, and was the highest proportion in the East Midlands, where 61.8% of contacts were reached on average.

Across England, 84.7% of contacts not managed by local health protection teams were reached and told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace in the latest week to December 2.

Local health protection teams deal with cases linked to settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons.

The contact tracing rate including these cases was 85.7%, up from 72.6% the week before.

Around 92,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 2.