New figures reveal test and trace failures in Sheffield

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 23,989 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Sheffield were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 2.

That means 1,112 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period.

Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

This led to 52,693 close contacts being identified over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.

But just 58.7 per cent of those were reached, meaning 21,774 people were not contacted or did not respond.

That was up from the 57.5 per cent reached in the period to November 25, and was the lowest proportion in Yorkshire and the Humber, where 59.8% of contacts were reached on average.

Across England, 84.7 per cent of contacts not managed by local health protection teams were reached and told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace in the latest week to December 2.

Local health protection teams deal with cases linked to settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons.

The contact tracing rate including these cases was 85.7 per cent, up from 72.6 per cent the week before.

Around 92,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 2.

At the time of going to press Sheffield was currently subjected to Tier Three lockdown measures, which prevents pubs and restaurants from opening their doors to customers and households from mixing indoors or in private gardens.

NHS England figures released on Monday revealed the city’s hospital death toll from the illness now stands at 526. Five more coronavirus-related deaths were also confirmed in Barnsley, taking the hospital death toll there to 354. In Rotherham five more deaths were recorded taking the total there to 379.

No new deaths were recorded in Doncaster where the total remains at 483.