Bradford door-to-door tests 'help to hit Covid targets'

The door-to-door team recently managed to conduct 500 tests in one day in Bradford

The growth of a door-to-door Covid-19 testing scheme is Bradford is helping the city exceed nationally-set test-and-trace targets, the council said.

The city started its own contact tracing in August, with the proportion of those reached locally growing from 73% to 86%.

But the city has the joint-worst contact tracing rate in England through the NHS Test and Trace scheme.

The government said NHS Test and Trace "continues to evolve and improve".

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) data shows the city, along with Luton, only reached an overall 49% of contacts under the NHS scheme.

To be effective, government advisers say 80% of contacts of people who test positive need to self-isolate for it to be successful.

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Part of the local programme involves its team of council workers and volunteers knocking on doors and offering tests.

The city, which will move into tier 3 of government restrictions when lockdown ends on 2 December, had 363 cases per 100,000 people in the latest week of 16-22 November.

The team is knocking on hundreds of doors every week to offer tests to people, with approximately one in ten people testing positive.

Analysis: National vs local test-and-trace schemes

By David Rhodes, BBC Yorkshire data journalist

Put simply, it would appear local knowledge is a big factor here.

Those employed in the council-run system have a greater understanding of which neighbourhoods are at greatest risk from the virus so can decide where to spend their time.

Local contact tracers can also go out on foot - whereas those employed through the NHS system are sitting in front of laptop screens.

In multicultural cities such as Bradford local contact tracers often are able to reach people whose first language is not English.

A number of places around England have found local test-and-trace systems are proving more effective.

Dr Mark Evans, lead for Bradford's contact-tracing programme, said: "We have built up a team over the last few months who have been working hard to reach those that the national test-and-trace team could not contact.

"We have actually exceeded the national target set and want to continue to strengthen the team to allow more door-to-door visits."

Sophie Mawson, a member of the door-to-door team, said: "A lot of the time people are excited to see us, they feel relieved.

"If we turn up on the door and they don't have symptoms and they have a test, then it's good for piece of mind."

A DHSC spokesperson said: "Since NHS Test and Trace launched, over 2.7 million contacts have been identified, and 79.7% of all contacts where communication details were given have been reached and told to self-isolate."

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