Thread by @justinmadders

Some thoughts on the first four weeks of the data on testing and tracing-
We have data on the number of people tested in pillars - 1 & 2- it’s a lot less than the total testing capacity figure and a lot less than the 100k people a day promised (1/13)

On average 15% of people were waiting more than 48 hours to get their test results back from regional testing centres, although that has improved significantly in the last few weeks (2/13)

From mobile and satellite testing units there were on average more than 25% of people waiting more than 48 hours for their results although again that has improved significantly in recent weeks as well (3/13)

Just under 20k worth of tests were “not completed” in all settings- nearly half of these were home test kits (4/13)

Nearly three quarters of everyone taking a home test are waiting more than 48 hours for the result (5/13)

There were slightly more people referred to the tracing system than tested positive from pillars 1 & 2 but just over a quarter of those people could not be contacted including 3.1%. where no details have been provided. This stat has not really improved at all (6/13)

About a third of people who were contacted did not have any other people they had been in contact with themselves (7/13)

We don’t have data on the time taken to contact in complex cases , but in “non-complex” cases 29% of people took longer than 24 hours to be contacted. (8/13)

In terms on non-complex cases I *think these are the ones being done by Serco. There were 16,751 of these in the month with 22,167 further people contacted as a result of that. With an estimated 25k contact tracers employee by Serco they are averaging 1.5 contacts a month (9/13)

Nearly half the contacts given by people who tested positive in non-complex cases could not be contacted to be asked to self isolate, showing why an app is important(10/13)

The numbers of people who test positive and are contacted in complex cases and the number of people they contacted was much much higher, these will usually be done by public health officials (11/13)

It is worth remembering that based on the ONS estimates that less than 1/4 of those infected are actually making it into the testing and tracing system (12/13)

Some thoughts-
Need greater availability of testing
Tests results to come back quicker
Those who test positive need to be contacted quicker
Too many who test positive aren’t being contacted
The App is needed to improve tracing of contacts
Serco aren’t adding much value(13/13)