MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2020) The NHS Test and Trace COVID-19 contact tracing service has not had as much impact in England and Wales as the government had initially hoped, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday.
"I would really disagree with what you said about it having no impact. Yes, it hasn't had as much impact as we would have wanted, but there's no doubt that by identifying people who have the disease, identifying the localities where people have the disease, we've been able to get the R down in a way that I don't think we would otherwise have done," Johnson said in response to a journalist's question at a government press briefing.
The prime minister added that he understood people's frustrations with the service, following reports that individuals faced long delays in getting tested and many contacts are not being reached.
Earlier in the day, the UK Department of Health and Social Care said that 40.1 percent of close contacts of coronavirus-positive people identified from October 22-28 in England had not been reached by NHS Test and Trace.
The contact tracing system was launched in May as part of efforts to curb COVID-19. Public health officials have registered more than 1.09 million cases of the disease in the UK since the start of the pandemic, including 25,177 new positive tests reported on Wednesday.
