Staffordshire County Council carries out extra tracing amid concerns about national Test and Trace
Staffordshire County Council is carrying out its own tracing measures to track down those who may have come into contact with someone infected with Covid-19 amid concerns the national system has not gone far enough.
The council is also looking to join a new “enhanced” contact tracing system pilot next month as part of the ongoing battle to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
The national Test and Trace system was launched in May to alert those who have been in recent contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, so they can self-isolate at home to help stop the virus passing to others.
But Dr Johnny McMahon, Staffordshire County Council’s new cabinet member for health, care and wellbeing, has written to the Government to raise concerns about the speed and coverage of current tracing system – and suggested the local authority could do a better job if it had access to more resources.
The council has been working with district and borough authorities to monitor the level of cases in the county – and take steps to address local outbreaks if needed.
In recent weeks there have been 22 Covid-19 cases linked to the Crown and Anchor pub in Stone, as well as ongoing “elevated” infection levels in parts of Burton.
More Covid-19 coverage:
A report from the Covid-19 Member Led Local Outbreak Control Board to Wednesday’s cabinet meeting said: “We continue to raise issues about the completeness and timeliness of the NHS test and trace service with the Department of Health and Social Care.
“We have put in place systems to mitigate this with the council tracing some cases and contacts in order to be sure that they are self-isolating, and we will be proceeding with a Local Enhanced Contact Tracing pilot to trace those cases and contacts that the national service has been unable to reach.”
Councillor McMahon told fellow cabinet members on Wednesday: “We do some tracking where the national trackers have clearly missed and we think that was particularly helpful in Stone to keep the virus down.
“We are also likely to be part of a pilot called the ‘follow up pilot’, which starts in September, and that’s to follow up those people who have been exposed to somebody with the virus if the national trackers haven’t got hold of them within 48 hours.
Control
“In my view in 48 hours you can do a lot of damage if you are contagious. If we had the resources and the ability to do all the tracking, I believe we would do considerably better.
“I wrote to the Secretary of State on 10th August and there are two things in that letter I think are worthy of note. The first is that the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies says that 80% of contacts need to be traced in order to control the infection and we don’t hit that number. The second point is if we had our pro rata share of resources for trackers we can do better in terms of productivity.
“We will take part in the pilot that’s offered to us, but we think we can do better because history has shown us that we can do this – and we can do it well.”
Fellow cabinet member Councillor Philip White said: “I think it is a well-established principle that decisions should be made as close to the situations they relate to as possible and I think the public health response to the coronavirus is one of the best examples of that you could ever hope to see.
“We have demonstrated in Staffordshire we are very capable of responding to the coronavirus crisis and I think it’s important the Government recognises that local authorities such as ours that do have that capability should be given the powers to get on with the job.
“I very much hope we will get a positive response to that letter and I hope it will be the first of many such recognitions of our capability. Hopefully more powers will be devolved to us so we can get on with serving our citizens as well as it is possible to do.”
Council leader Alan White said: “This is an example not only of local government doing it well but doing it really well. Districts, boroughs and the county have worked tremendously well together.
“Let’s remind ourselves the journey to recovery is only possible if we maintain our grip on this infection. Our journey to recovery stops the moment we lose that grip.
“That way we can develop the confidence amongst the public we represent and the businesses that serve our community and we can get back to business almost as normal in due course.
“Let’s remind ourselves of the basics of that personal responsibility of washing your hands, keeping yourself socially distanced, making sure you are doing the right thing – not just for yourself but also for your family, neighbours and the rest of the community.”
