Three in 10 close contacts not being reached by test and trace regime in Milton Keynes

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 3,978 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Milton Keynes were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 9.

That means 568 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period.

Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

This led to 9,515 close contacts being identified over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.

But just 70.2% of those were reached, meaning 2,833 people were not contacted or did not respond.

That was up from the 66.8% reached in the period to December 2, and was the highest proportion in the South East, where 69.1% of contacts were reached on average.

Across England, 92.3% of contacts not managed by local health protection teams were reached and told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace in the latest week to December 9.

Local health protection teams deal with cases linked to settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons.

The contact tracing rate including these cases was 92.7%, up from 85.9% the week before.

Around 97,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 9.