Yesterday I asked @nicolasturgeon why Scotland had stopped contact tracing against @WHO recommendations.

She suggested I had got this wrong.

Also yesterday, here is @WHO on the importance of contact tracing and breaking the chains of transmission. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/ireland-has-strategy-to-break-the-chains-of-coronavirus-who-s-mike-ryan-1.4219495">https://www.irishtimes.com/news/heal...

Here’s my report in which Ireland’s contact tracing lead explains:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="▪️" title="Black small square" aria-label="Emoji: Black small square">how he recruited 1,000 contact tracers in weeks
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="▪️" title="Black small square" aria-label="Emoji: Black small square">why it’s ‘the most important’ thing to be doing now
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="▪️" title="Black small square" aria-label="Emoji: Black small square">why he believes it will save tens of thousands of lives in Ireland alone https://www.channel4.com/news/the-race-to-trace-has-the-uk-abandoned-coronavirus-contact-tracing">https://www.channel4.com/news/the-...

This image shows the number of confirmed cases in parts of Scotland was at or near zero when UK entered ‘delay phase’ and contact tracing was stopped because virus so ‘widespread’.

Same areas. This image shows the number of confirmed cases when UK entered ‘delay phase’ and contract tracing stopped versus confirmed cases now.

Nicola Sturgeon yesterday said:

‘What happens in the contain phase is, when a case is confirmed, all of their contacts were traced and where appropriate given necessary testing as well.

‘And that happened throughout the contain phase.’

Nicola Sturgeon: ‘We then moved into the delay phase – which happens when transmission of the virus is considered to have reached a certain stage.

‘At that point that contact tracing does not continue to happen..’

Nicola Sturgeon: ‘..because we go to a situation of presuming that people with certain symptoms have the illness and ask them proactively to isolate.’

Ireland has 1,000+ trained contact tracers.

The authorities in Scotland and England refused to give me a figure for the number of contact tracers they have.