UK Government to hire more than 18,000 people as contact tracers as more coronavirus Covid-19 testing to be made available
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UK health secretary Matt Hancock has said 18,000 people are to be employed to trace and track cases of Covid-19.
Speaking at today's UK government briefing he also revealed that essential workers and their employers in England will be able to book tests for coronavirus – though the measure does not appear to apply elsewhere in the UK.
After sustained criticism about testing levels Mr Hancock insisted testing capacity was ahead of what had been anticipated at this stage, claiming an overnight increase from 40,000 to 51,000 – just over halfway to the 100,000 target he previously set to be met in a week’s time.
He said: “Test, track and trace is such an important part of the measures that we’re taking and the work that we are doing.
“First testing, we set the goal of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month. I knew when we set it that this was a challenging target. Capacity is now ahead of our plans and even overnight has increased from 40,000 to 51,000, and because capacity has increased so substantially we are now able to expand who gets the tests.
“Our ultimate goal is that everyone who could benefit from a test gets a test but, of course, we had to start by prioritising patients, followed by NHS and social care colleagues and by those in care homes.
“As we expanded the capacity from 2000 tests a day at the start of March to 10,000 tests a day at the start of this month so we've been able to further expand access and today I can go further.
“We can make it easier, faster and simpler for any essential worker in England who needs a test to get a test.
"From today employers of essential workers will be able to go on gov.uk to get a test for any of their staff who need a test.
“And from tomorrow any essential workers who need a test will be able to book an appointment on gov.uk themselves directly."
In terms of contact tracing he added: “We need to really kickstart contact tracing as the number of new cases begins to fall.
"We are preparing for this now by hiring an initial 18,000 people, including 3000 including public health specialists.
“We will be training the massed ranks of our contact tracers over the coming weeks and rolling out the service.
"This test, track and trace will be vital to stop a second peak of the virus.”
