Home test results are taking so long 'they render tracing scheme useless'

Half of coronavirus tests carried out in the community are taking four days as standard to return results, it has emerged as the Government misses its 24 hour target.

Home testing of symptomatic cases, which has accounted for more than 2.7 million tests in the official statistics, is taking so long that it is rendering the track and trace system useless, scientists have warned.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that even if every part of the process runs to the plan, it will be around 96 hours after the original case develops symptoms before the contact tracing process even begins.

The Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies told Ministers that delaying tracing beyond 48-72 hours will have a “significant” effect on the R number.

Experts advising the Government have said that for effective track and trace, seen as the key to controlling coronavirus and preventing further lockdowns, test results need to be turned around within 24 hours.

Boris Johnson promised that all tests would fit this time frame by the end of June “except for difficulties with postal tests or insuperable problems like that” but official have been unable to provide any data on whether it has been met.

The Telegraph followed the progress of a person with Covid-19 symptoms and found that after requesting a home test they were told it would be delivered in 48 hours.

Only once they received the delivery could they book a courier to collect the test the following day. If the item had been delivered after 4pm then they would have had to wait till the next day to order a collection for the following day.

Once the test was collected the results were received the following day, meaning that even if the process runs as intended it will take four days.

Home testing accounts for more than half of the Government’s “pillar 2” swab testing for those outside of hospitals and care homes who have symptoms.

If a person has a car they are able to attend a test centre in person, which to date accounts for 2,054,882 of tests compared to 2,759,897 tests which have been sent out to people’s homes.

Yesterday of the 63,340 community swab tests 11,245 were completed in person whilst 52,095  were sent to people's homes.

The Department of Health is set to release a weeks’ worth of data on Wednesday on the turnaround for tests carried out between June 18 and 24, and insist that the target only applies to regional test centres and mobile testing units.

But the revelations are the latest in a long line of failures in the system which could lead to further lockdowns as officials fail to control the spread of the disease.

Dr David Bonsall, of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine who has been advising the Government on contact tracing, said: “We have made it clear from the very start that speed is absolutely critical, we have got to find people before they infect others. Our modelling shows that we have to turn tests around within 24 hours from the point of symptoms.

“If it is taking four days to turn tests around, contact tracing will have very little effect on the virus.”

Modelling by his team at Oxford University showed that waiting just 48 hours from the point a person showed symptoms to tracing their contacts resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in the number of cases that were prevented.

Every 48 hours after that had a significant impact before the process became useless after six days as the contact would have likely passed it on.

Officials have expressed frustration, recognising that home testing is beset by dangerous delays.

They have failed to say whether they count their target from the moment the test is taken, as they were doing in May, or start the clock when a person requests a test, as promised by Professor John Newton who is leading the programme.

Prof Newton has recognised that even this is flawed and “we have made it very clear that we need to start moving to measuring from when the person has symptoms”.

Dr Bonsall pointed out that a large number of the home tests sent out are never even returned, adding: “ The worry is that for a lot of people this disease is not very symptomatic and if you wait two days to receive your test if you start to feel OK you might not go to the trouble of doing it.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We’ve rapidly expanded our testing capability into a world-beating industry and anyone with symptoms can now get a test.

“There has been consistent improvement in testing turnaround times and these will be published in the next NHS Test and Trace figures.”