Thread by @AlbertoNardelli

The UK says it will recruit 18,000 people to work on contact tracing by the middle of May but declines to share little else. It won't even say how many have been recruited so far.

So we asked Germany & others how contact tracing works in their countries

buzzfeed.com/albertonardell…

The comparison tells a story that is eerily similar to the UK’s approach to testing. As the coronavirus outbreak intensified in March and other countries ramped up capacity, Britain scaled back, and is now scrambling to catch up

buzzfeed.com/albertonardell…

This is also a story about transparency. German health authorities and most states shared data about how many contact tracers work across the country, and answered questions about how the system functions.

The UK government declines to share similar data and answers to questions

Around the same time the UK scaled back contact tracing and testing, others did the opposite, ramping up both.

In Iceland, in a clear indication of how aggressively it traced contacts, 57% of those that tested positive for COVID-19 were already self-isolating when diagnosed

Both Germany and Iceland are now easing restrictions.

While doing so, Germany has introduced an emergency mechanism designed to stop a local outbreak before it spreads further. The "emergency brake" is triggered if new infections in a district or city go above a certain rate

German states are expected to have at least one team of 5 contact tracers for every 20,000 people. Most have hit this target or are in the process of doing so. The effort is supported by so-called "containment scouts" deployed in each state — and recruitment started in March

On paper, UK's 18K figure is of similar ambition — but it is not known how and where 15K call handlers and 3K contact tracers will be deployed or how many have been hired.

Crucially, the German numbers are real. The UK's, for now, a target.

Full story: buzzfeed.com/albertonardell…