Leeds is ready for track and trace claims chief as isolation order texts begin

Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan, who has also been heading up some of the government’s work on testing and tracing over the past couple of weeks, made the comments as thousands of contact tracers begin making phone calls today to warn individuals who may be at risk of Covid-19.

And, although the accompanying mobile app is still facing delays of several weeks, Mr Riordan insists the city is well-equipped to deal with the virus.

“I think it is ready,” he said. “Because I have been involved with the national programme I have known that this is the target week that we were trying to hit.

“I think it’s been a productive two and a half weeks where we have managed to agree that there should be a strong local element to the NHS test and trace service.

The government has 25,000 tracers working nationally to get in touch with those who may be at risk of having the disease, but Mr Riordan added further local work would look into complex outbreaks in areas such as care homes and prisons.

He also claimed each council is expected to have a “local plan” drawn up by the end of June, detailing how it would deal with further outbreaks in future.

He said: “We will need to expand the amount of people who are asked to self isolate having had a positive test, but the people they have had close contact with for more than fifteen minutes will be at risk of having the infection as well.

“It will slow the spread of the virus, and as numbers reduce in Leeds, this gives us a better chance of almost getting on the front foot in tackling the outbreaks of the virus, rather than reacting as we have been previously.

“It is a big step forward in launching the service. It is a big move because places around the world that have been successful in keeping the virus under control have introduced this sort of service.

“We are very early into the idea of local plans – we will see more improvements in data, so people will see where the virus is in their local area.

“We will have more idea where the high risk workplaces are, and we will develop this in June and by the end of June we will have plans in place.”

Although a mobile phone app is expected to be fully up and running at some point in the future, The NHS Test and Trace system is currently operating without it.

Under the new system, NHS tracers, or local public health teams, will text, email or call people who test positive with coronavirus and ask them to share details of those they have been in close contact with, along with places they have visited.

These contacts will then be considered to be at risk of infection and be instructed to self-isolate at home for 14 days as a result, even if they are not displaying any symptoms.

Anyone who has already had the virus will also be asked to self-isolate.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that people will not receive penalties for failing to abide by the guidelines “in the first instance”, but it could possibly be made mandatory for people to stay at home in the future.