University of Sheffield coronavirus contact tracing hailed a success as new cases plummet

The service was set up two weeks ago to curb the spread of Covid-19 at the university, where at the peak in early October more than 100 new cases were recorded in a single day.

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Andrew Lee, a reader in public health at the university, yesterday said it was ‘functioning well’."Over 90% cases contacted within 24h of notification & their contacts by next day. 100% on some days! Many thanks to students & staff for their cooperation & civic-mindedness to keep our community safe,” he added.

By comparison, the Government’s Test and Trace system failed to trace more than 40 per cent of the close contacts of people who tested positive for coronavirus in the latest week.

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In the four days to November 5, another 31 staff and students at the university out of around 37,000 tested positive for coronavirus.