Thread by @ADMBriggs

Because it's Christmas eve and there's not much else to do whilst sitting in a dark room waiting for small people to go to bed, here's a quick look at today's T&T data.

Covers 10-16th Dec.

Test times much worse, contact tracing continues to improve.🧵

gov.uk/government/pub…

Any graphs this wk are from PHE report. T&T are just providing data update.

Number of people tested up 12% to 1.99m but positive tests up 58% to 174k, incl a v large 67% increase in pillar 2 (community testing, including use of lateral flow tests in those who are asymptomatic).

Big drop in performance for P2 test turnaround times.
- Regional test sites, 36% of results are provided within 24hrs of taking a test, down from 63% the week before.
- For local test sites the drop is from 51% to 22%
- Mobile test sites: from 68% to 48%

- For satellite test centres, 46% of results within 48hrs down from 63% the week before
- For home test kits it's now 38% compared with 64% last week.

And with median time to results increasing, also seeing distances people are having to travel beginning to creep up for regional and local test sites.

I really *hope* that this is not a sign that the system is buckling as case numbers rise but I fear it might be. It is so important for contact tracing and stopping transmission that people with symptoms can get tested and get results in a timely way.

Symptoms predict disease.

In terms of contact tracing.
Of the 139k transferred, an impressive 88% were reached (up from 87.5% last week, and the highest ever).

And 77% of these were reached within 24hrs - highest since wk 2 (in June)

79% of cases provided details of contacts (in line with previous weeks) - identifying 288k close contacts

And along with the last couple of wks, a v impressive 93% were reached.

The timeliness also remains impressive, with over 97% of contacts managed by the national team reached within 24hrs.

That's it. More detailed figures and commentary next week. But now it's time to wrap presents.

For those celebrating, enjoy and stay safe tomorrow.

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