West Berkshire Council to begin local contact tracing for coronavirus

Council staff will be picking up gaps in Test and Trace system

WEST Berkshire Council will be working to plug the gaps in the Test and Trace system from this month.

The council’s Public Health and Wellbeing team, alongside the Public Protection Partnership (PPP), will be starting local contact tracing for Covid-19 in West Berkshire.

The local contact tracing will support the NHS system, with the aim of controlling the spread of coronavirus.

Local contact tracers will get in touch with residents who have tested positive for Covid-19 but have not been able to be reached by the NHS system.

They will remind residents of their legal duty to self-isolate, request the details of close contacts and offer to direct the residents to local help and support services.

Test and Trace data for West Berkshire from May 28 to October 21 shows that 80 per cent of people who were transferred to the contact tracing system were reached.

But the number of close contacts identified who were not managed by local health protection teams stands at 66 per cent.

Around 20 council staff have been trained for the project.

Council leader Lynne Doherty (Con, Speen) said: “Residents can expect a call from a person here in West Berkshire.

“The national Test and Trace is picking up 70 to 80 per cent. What’s left, we will be doing our own follow-up.

“The good thing with that is the understanding of the locality here. It’s that joined-up approach. I think that will help with building people’s confidence.

"We know nationally that the number of positive cases of Covid-19 are growing but this local approach combines national scale and data with local knowledge. It will give us helpful local information about how people are being exposed to the virus, which in turn will inform our approaches to containing the virus.

"Our call handlers can then support local residents to complete the self-isolation period to break the chain of infection and offer advice on financial grants that could be available.

"This locally tailored service includes our continued partnership work with community and voluntary groups via our Community Support Hub, which has been a tremendous support to our most vulnerable residents throughout the pandemic.

“It is vitally important we all play our part to prevent the spread of Covid-19 but it needs to work hand in hand with all the other measures we need to adhere to such as limiting social contact, washing our hands, wearing a mask, keeping our distance and getting a test plus self-isolating if you have symptoms.”

A local contact tracer will always call from (01635) 551111 and will never ask for financial information, passwords or payment.