One of the ways we protect the public from infectious diseases like novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is contact tracing. In this blog Nick Phin, Deputy Director at PHE’s National Infections Service...

Thousands of council workers could have been deployed by the government but were not asked

The World Health Organisation has repeated calls for all countries to find and test every coronavirus case after the British government claimed the practice was “no longer necessary”. Announcing the

Testing and tracing must resume urgently On 24 February, there were nine confirmed cases of covid-19 in the UK. On the same day, the World Health Organization recommended countries outside China with...

Matt Hancock says government to rebuild teams amid criticism it stopped strategy too early

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock gave the 23 April 2020 daily press briefing on the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Task of tracking millions of people with coronavirus needs local ‘shoe-leather’ work

Jenny Harries suggests the UK could have continued test and trace in March if it had capacity. It is only now being reintroduced.

The test, track and trace programme to tame coronavirus and release the lockdown will be “a car crash” as currently designed, a leader in disease control has warned in a blistering attack on the

The NHS coronavirus tracing app will be introduced across England in “mid-May” while 18,000 tracing agents will be in place by the end of the next week, the government has pledged.Matt Hancock, the

It comes as Labour accuses the government of leaving a "huge hole" in the UK's coronavirus defences.