weekly testing of asymptomatic NHS staff in all settings should be routine
weekly testing of care home staff and monthly testing of residents should be routine
nosocomial infections should be prevented through rigorous implementation of infection prevention and control measures in all settings with visible support from leaders
resources and staff should be transferred from the failed national outsourcing model to councils to give DsPH the tools to do the job working with PHE teams
people asked to isolate should receive adequate financial and practical support to make this the easy thing to do as well as the right thing to do
councils should work with communities and leaders in faith groups, businesses, VCS etc to engage everyone in doing what is needed - we are all in this together
focus on doing all of these basics well and be sceptical of hype around moonshots etc - it's the whole package that will see us through the winter if we get it right
Just explained @BBCEngland that test and trace has picked up 10K new cases in last 2 weeks which is minority of new cases as reported by @ONS. National tracers have reached 10,000 out of 87,000 reported contacts thru 25,000 staff
Remaining 77,000 contacts (complex cases) have been reached by @PHE_uk and council led local health protection teams who have been brought into test and trace late in the day
Balance of work to date raises question of whether 25,000 staff are needed at national level and why govt has preferred outsourcing to private companies instead of building from public sector expertise
test and trace is still in development. When will it be ready to provide the protection we need to avoid a resurgence of C-19? when will every LA have a local outbreak plan and enough staff to do contact tracing?
the PM referenced the Joint Biosecurity Centre which is now on its second leader in 4 weeks. Exactly what is it doing and when will it be fully operational?
The govt's approach to test, trace and isolate has been tactical and focused on specific commitments like 100K tests, 18K contact tracers and an NHS app (1)
a coherent strategy on test, trace and isolate is urgently needed showing how testing will work at scale and the results used to trace contacts and support people who isolate (2)
The strategy must be supported by a detailed implementation plan with milestones on precisely what will be delivered when (3)
Community testing, tracking and contact tracing of C-19 is a key part of the government's strategy as plans are made to relax the lockdown 1/11
Community testing requires sufficient capacity to test in convenient locations and to turnaround the results quickly - this currently does not exist and the whole testing programme to date has been beset by problems @NHSProviders 2/11
Test results need to be shared rapidly with people affected, GPs and staff undertaking contact tracing, supported by data sharing arrangements yet to be agreed 3/11