Ministers insisted today that the government’s track and trace programme is “delivering” despite warnings by scientists that it is still not good enough to prevent a second wave of coronavirus when schools reopen.
Modelling by academics at the University of London found that 75 per cent of symptomatic Covid-19 cases would need to be caught by the programme and 70 per cent of their contacts followed up if the government is to keep the virus in check.
At present, testers and contact tracers manage to reach only about half of people with a symptomatic infection. They then follow up half their contacts, leaving the nation far from the level needed to safely reopen schools, the study concluded.
The study’s authors warned that if testing and
