More than 17,000 of the promised 18,000 coronavirus contact tracers have now been recruited and the government is “on course” to get the crucial programme operational, cabinet minister Michael Gove has said.
Doubts had been raised about progress with the ”test, trace and isolate” scheme after Mr Gove’s cabinet colleague Brandon Lewis said on Friday that only 1,500 people – 8 per cent of those needed – had been hired.
But Mr Gove told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that “just over 17,000” had now been recruited, adding: “I have to praise the work of health secretary Matt Hancock. In the past people have seen Matt and the government set ambitious targets and said their target on testing wouldn’t be met. Matt met that target.
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“It’s now the case that more than 17,000 have been recruited for contact tracing and we are on course to meet that target. It’s more evidence that we have in Matt an energetic and determined health secretary who is throwing everything into the fight against the virus and making sure we mobilise a national effort.”
Mr Gove said the contact tracing programme should now be operational “by the end of this month”.
But acting Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said the establishment of the programme had been frustratingly slow, and that 18,000 tracers would not be enough to make it effective.
Responding to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s comments, Davey said: ”The Liberal Democrats have been calling for a comprehensive test, trace and isolate strategy from early in the crisis and like so many have been frustrated by the slowness in ministers’ actions.
“Yet the Government’s latest approach on tracing is totally inadequate. The experience in other countries suggests we will need more than 18,000 people to undertake the tracing work and the failure of Whitehall ministers to engage with communities to deliver an effective tracing strategy is lamentable.
“Government ministers must now get a grip on the crisis urgently rather than wasting time patting themselves on the back when in truth they have been shambolic.”
