Coronavirus: Disease Control

(asked on 28th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what priority they will give to (1) COVID-19 testing, (2) ensuring that people with COVID-19 isolate, (3) contact tracing, and (4) tracking the movements of people with COVID-19, as part of their strategy for preventing the spread of COVID-19 as the number of cases reduce.


Answered by
Lord Bethell Portrait
Lord Bethell
This question was answered on 11th March 2021

The Government has put in place the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities created in British history. NHS Test and Trace has capacity to respond to increases in demand and people can have confidence that if they have symptoms and need a test, they can get one, and get their result the next day. Over 72 million tests have been processed so far and we have the capacity to carry out almost 800,000 tests per day The Test and Trace Support Payment has been introduced in response to feedback from local authorities and directors of public health that some of their residents were struggling to self-isolate as directed due to financial constraints. It is to help ensure that people on low incomes self-isolate when they test positive or are identified as a contact, and to encourage more people to get tested. This will help to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. 86.4% (171,847) of people who tested positive and were transferred to the contact tracing system were reached and asked to provide information about their contacts and 96.6% of contacts where communication details were given were reached and told to self-isolate. This has remained constant for the past five weeks. It is a legal requirement to self-isolate if you have Covid symptoms, receive a positive test result, or are told to isolate by NHS Test and Trace.

The vast majority of people are complying – and know that we all have a role to play in getting this virus under control. And for those who don’t, the police can and will request data from NHS Test and Trace to confirm that an individual has a legal duty to self-isolate.

Reticulating Splines