AROUND one-third of people who should be picked up by the NHS Test and Trace system (an outsourced service, see below) in Cheshire are not being reached, new figures suggest.
Data from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) shows that between May 28 and September 9, 66 per cent of close contacts who were flagged up by people with positive Covid-19 test results in Cheshire West – including Northwich and Winsford – were reached by contact tracers.
That percentage rises to 69 per cent in Cheshire East, which includes Middlewich, Knutsford and Wilmslow.
The full story is here in the Knutsford Guardian
* "NHS" Test and Trace is carried out by private companies including:
- Serco, employing c. 25,000 tracers, contract approx. £108m
- Deloitte – subcontracting to Serco, Boots, Mitie, G4S and Sodexo
- Sitel group (call centres)
- Randox (test kits for home use)
- Amazon – logistics
- Transunion (US company used for identity checking)