Nearly a third of close contacts not being reached by test and trace regime in Buckinghamshire

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 7,748 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Buckinghamshire were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 9.

That means 858 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 18,245 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 67.9% of those were reached, meaning 5,849 people were not contacted or did not respond.

That was up from the 64.9% reached in the period to December 2

Across England, 92.3% 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 9.

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

The contact tracing rate including these cases was 92.7%, up from 85.9% the week before.

Around 97,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 9.