England’s test and trace reaches 86% of contacts, helped by change in method

LONDON (Reuters) – England’s COVID-19 test and trace system reached a higher proportion of contacts of positive cases in the first set of comparable data since a change in methodology boosted the numbers from record lows.

The test and trace system has stopped trying to contact under-18s separately to ask them to self-isolate if a parent says they will tell their child, helping to boost the proportion of contacts of cases successfully traced from record lows around 60%.

The system reached 85.7% of the 195,355 people who came into close contact with a positive COVID case in the week to Dec 2., up from 72.5% last week, in the first set of figures which both used the same method for contacting families.