Coronavirus: UK on target to recruit 18,000 contact tracers by next week, govt says
Downing Street says the 1,500 figure set out by a minister earlier is out of date and "significantly more" have been recruited.
Friday 15 May 2020 13:27, UK
The government has said it is on course to recruit its target of 18,000 contact tracers next week.
It comes after a minister told Sky News that just 1,500 were in place at the start of this week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock had pledged to recruit 18,000 contact tracers by the middle of this month.
The measure is a key part of the government's "test, track and trace" strategy to ease the COVID-19 lockdown.
Ministers hope that contact tracing will help reduce transmission of coronavirus by identifying and alerting people who may have been exposed to it.
This will allow them to protect themselves and others close to them by self-isolating.
An app has been developed by NHSX, the health service's digital arm, which is being trialled on the Isle of Wight.
Alongside this, a legion of human contact tracers will manually gather information about the places infected people have visited, and others they have been in contact with, to get a detailed picture of who might be at risk of infection.
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Asked for an update on plans to recruit thousands of contact tracers, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told Sky News this morning: "I don't think we've got to 18,000 just yet, I think there's about 15,000 applications, we're looking to as you say get up to 18,000."
Pressed for an exact number of contact tracers recruited, he responded: "As of this morning I'm not sure of exactly how many of the 15,000 have been hired, earlier in the week it was about 1,500, it would have gone up since then."
Addressing a regular Westminster briefing for journalists, the prime minister's spokesman said the 1,500 figure was out of date and "significantly more" have since been recruited.
However, Downing Street said it did not have a specific number.
"The numbers he [Brandon Lewis] had were a little behind where we are, so I think it was just from a couple of days ago," Boris Johnson's spokesman said.
"I don't have a more up-to-date number but I know that we have recruited significantly more than the 1,500 he spoke about and we are on course to have the 18,000 in place next week."
Labour has questioned whether 18,000 contact tracers will be enough, with the party noting that some experts have suggested "as many as 50,000 may be needed".
Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the scheme had been a "shambles" so far.
She has written to opposite number Michael Gove to raise a number of questions.
Ms Reeves said it was a "mistake" for the government to have stopped contact tracing in March and that Labour "supported" moves to bring in a "comprehensive strategy for contact tracing both through the use of a suitable mobile phone app and a manual tracing service".
She raised questions about the reported hiring of private firm Serco to put in place the manual contact tracing team.
Ms Reeves said there must be "transparency and accountability for the huge sums of taxpayers' money" involved in the government's response to the coronavirus.