Councils across the north of England are to set up their own track-and-trace systems to plug holes in the government’s £10 billion national scheme.
Amid a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases across the region, officials in Greater Manchester are understood to be close to finalising a “door to door” scheme to pick up cases missed by NHS Test and Trace.
Blackburn with Darwen council, which has one of the country’s highest infection rates, launched a bespoke system yesterday with the agreement of Public Health England. Bradford is also believed to be considering establishing a local track-and-trace team.
Under the plans, details of confirmed or possible cases of Covid-19 infections would be forwarded to local public health teams if NHS Test and Trace staff had been