Test and trace 'won't be fully operational locally until late June', claims MP

Two MPs have claimed the government’s new test and trace system for detecting coronavirus will not be “fully operation” in local areas until late June – despite claims it would be ready next week.

The test and trace system, which went live on this morning, is now seen as a crucial component of efforts to safely ease the lockdown whilst avoiding a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

However, after Boris Johnson said he had “great confidence” that the government’s contact tracing system would be ready for a nationwide rollout by 1 June, two Labour MPs have said the system would be arriving later in all local areas than planned.

It comes as NHS test and trace workers were unable to log in to the new website as the system was launched, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed.

Labour’s Ben Bradshaw and Lib Dem Daisy Cooper both tweeted after Dido Harding, executive chairwoman of NHS Test and Trace, made the admission in a call with MPs on Thursday morning.

Bradshaw, who was on the call, said he asked Lady Harding whether his local authority in Devon – a pilot area for the scheme – was correct in thinking local plans did not need to be in place until the end of next month.

He said: "I simply asked her to clarify the timing on the rollout and I told her what Devon had told me – and she confirmed that, yes, the local operational rollout of this would not happen until the end of June.

"I wasn't surprised by that because it was what Devon had told me but it is in complete variance with what Boris Johnson promised Keir Starmer at PMQs last week when he promised a world-beating test, trace and isolate system would be operational by Monday.

"And of course yesterday in a great flurry Matt Hancock announced this and launched it today. And it does seem rather worrying to me that the government keeps launching things or announcing things that either aren't ready or it cannot deliver on.

"One can't help but suspect that the reason they have chosen to do this in the last 24 to 48 hours is to try to divert attention away from Dominic Cummings."

And Lib Dem MP Cooper wrote: “Dido Harding just told me that the #NHSX app described by PM a week ago as ‘world-beating’ is in fact just a ‘cherry on top’ of the tracing system: which itself won’t be fully operational until end June… 4 weeks after lockdown restrictions ease. This is a high risk strategy.”

Speaking of the launch day glitch, a DHSC spokesman – who added the system “had not crashed” – said: "As with all large scale operations of this kind, some staff did initially encounter issues logging on to their systems and these are rapidly being resolved."

The test and trace system, which went live on Thursday, means that people who come into close contact with a coronavirus sufferer will be told to self-isolate for 14 days.

The introduction of the system is aiming to help contain the virus as the government works to ease lockdown rules.

This scheme differs from the contact tracing app being currently being tested on the Isle of Wight – which also identifies people unknown to someone who tests positive.

Yahoo News has contacted Public Health England and Downing Street for further comment.

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