Hancock launches virus tracing system

LONDON: People contacted as part of the new NHS Test and Trace system must stay at home, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said, while continuing to defend Dominic Cummings for “acting within the guidelines”.

As the new scheme rolls out across England, Hancock said “the instructions are absolutely clear” and that, if told to do so by a tracer, it is very important that individuals self-isolate for 14 days.

His comments came amid mounting Tory anger over alleged lockdown breaches by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, whose actions the Health Secretary failed to say were the right thing to do.

Hancock said he believes “the vast majority” will self-isolate voluntarily under the new system and that people will not receive penalties for failing to abide by the guidelines “in the first instance”, but he left open the possibility of making it mandatory for people to stay at home in the future.

NHS Test and Trace — seen as key to easing the restrictions — will be rolled out across England on Thursday with the help of 25,000 contact tracers, while an accompanying app is still delayed by several weeks.

Under the new system, people who come into close contact with a coronavirus sufferer will be told to self-isolate for 14 days under the new plans.

Meanwhile, a test and trace system is also launching in Scotland, where an easing of the lockdown is expected later.

Asked why people should follow the new self-isolation rules, when even Tory MPs believe Johnson’s most senior aide breached them, Hancock said that it is in “the whole community’s interest”.

“I think that the vast majority of people will understand that it is in everybody’s interest that those who are in higher risk follow the requests from the NHS, these instructions, and it is very important that they do.

“And, frankly, this is about how, as a country, we get out of this lockdown in the safest possible way, short of having a vaccine or an effective treatment, which obviously we’re working on but we don’t yet have,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The launch of the system comes amid a growing revolt within the Conservative Party over Cummings’ controversial trip to Durham — with dozens of backbench Tories criticising his actions, and at least 38 calling for him to quit or be sacked.

But Hancock remained adamant that the Downing Street aide acted in line with the rules when asked if his actions were morally right. “I’ve said that I think that he was acting within the guidelines; I also understand why reasonable people might disagree with that,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Senior minister Penny Mordaunt admitted there were “inconsistencies” in Cummings’ account — saying “there is no doubt he took risks”.

Former home secretary Amber Rudd added her name to the list of prominent Tory figures saying Cummings should quit. “Yes, I think he should quit, because he’s making things worse,” Rudd said on ITV’s Peston programme.

Under the new Test and Trace system, if an individual’s test is positive, NHS contact tracers or local public health teams will call, email or send a text asking them to share details of the people they have been in close contact with and places they have visited.

The team then emails or texts those close contacts, telling them they must stay home for 14 days even if they have no symptoms, to avoid unknowingly spreading the virus.

Amid reports by Sky News that some contact tracers do not have their basic systems up and running yet, the Department of Health insisted that the “vast majority of our 25,000 staff have completed their training”.