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Thursday July 24, 2025

Johnson vows new virus tracing system by June 1

By Pa
May 21, 2020

LONDON: A testing and tracing system seen as the key to easing the lockdown will be up and running by June 1, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised.

Johnson said 25,000 staff would be in place by the start of next month — the earliest possible date earmarked for the gradual reopening of schools and shops in England — and they would be capable of tracking the contacts of up to 10,000 new Covid-19 cases a day.

His comments came after Cabinet minister Robert Buckland conceded there may not be a “uniform approach” to reopening England’s schools in the face of opposition from councils and unions.

The government’s deputy chief scientific adviser Professor Dame Angela McLean has said that the modelling for changes to the lockdown were based on a “highly effective track, trace and isolate system” being in place.

At Prime Minister’s Questions Johnson said: “We’re making fast progress in testing and tracing and I have great confidence that by June 1 we will have a system that will enable us, that will help us very greatly to defeat this disease and move the country forward.”

The capacity to trace the contacts of 10,000 people far exceeds current levels of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Widespread contact tracing was abandoned in mid-March as the number of cases soared in the UK.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said last week that the contact tracing app — part of test, track and trace — would be rolled out across England from mid-May but that has now been pushed back. Johnson did not mention the app — currently being trialled on the Isle of Wight — as part of his plan for June 1.

Asked earlier if schools reopening depends on test, track and trace being fully in place, Buckland told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think the position is somewhat more nuanced than that.”

Ministers are facing pressure from several councils and teaching unions to reconsider plans to reopen English primary schools. At the moment, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 are due to go back from June 1 at the earliest, with other years phased in before the summer break.

Buckland said Number 10 is taking all concerns “very seriously”. He told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t think any of us want to put either children or our dedicated teaching staff in any danger at all, and the question of being safe is clearly paramount.

“So we’re all working towards June 1 and planning for that return, but I accept the point that there may well be issues from employers that need to be addressed which might not mean we’ll see a uniform approach on June 1.” Buckland acknowledged that the test and trace system “won’t necessarily be as widespread and as full-blown as we would like” when it is launched.