Covid: Test, Trace, Protect taking longer to reach positive cases

Test, Trace, Protect is dealing with about 5,400 people a day

Less than half of people who tested positive for Covid were reached by NHS Wales' contact tracing system within 24 hours, latest figures show.

Digital Health and Care Wales figures show, of 13,504 eligible cases in the latest week, 41.8% were reached by Test, Trace, Protect within 24 hours.

In the previous week, 56.5% of people were reached within that timeframe. The figure was 88.3% the week before.

A Welsh government spokeswoman said a rise in cases has had an impact.

Positive cases not eligible for follow up include those in hospitals, care homes, prisons and schools.

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Digital Health and Care Wales said the drop in speed was "likely due to a larger number of positive cases and close contacts eligible for follow up by local contact tracing teams".

TTP was dealing with up to 8,200 people a day during the second wave peak, but had been down to about 500.

But, reflecting the rise in cases, it is now dealing with about 5,400 people a day.

It has been estimated that 10% of contacts of an infected person go on to develop Covid.

Of the 24,218 close contacts eligible for follow-up in the most recent week, 51.9% were reached within 24 hours of being identified by a positive case and 65.9% were contacted within 48 hours.

These are the lowest figures since similar response times at the start of January.

One of the system's key objectives is to reach 70% of close contacts within 24 hours so they can self-isolate, preventing them from passing the virus to others.

A Welsh government spokeswoman said: "Test Trace Protect has consistently reached more than 90% of positive cases and 80% of close contacts over the summer.

"As cases have surged in recent weeks this has inevitably impacted on performance. We are working with our dedicated TTP teams to consider how we can maximise performance."

How many cases have there been in Wales?

On Thursday, Public Health Wales (PHW) reported five further Covid deaths and 2,275 new cases.

It takes the total number of deaths to 5,682 and the total number of cases to 283,865.

The five newly-reported deaths were all in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board area in north Wales, with three on 29 August and two on 31 August.

The seven day rolling case rate per 100,0000 people for the whole of Wales has risen again to 411.4, compared to 408.6 reported on Wednesday.

How many people have long Covid?

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has estimated 49,000 people are experiencing long Covid symptoms.

The figures, based on self-reported symptoms, covers people who said they were still experiencing Covid symptoms more than four weeks after infection that could not be explained by anything else.

ONS estimated 11,000 people would have their activity "limited a lot" and 13,000 people still had long Covid a year after becoming infected.

It estimated, as of the beginning of August, 1.6% of the Welsh population had Covid symptoms more than a month after infection, similar to an earlier survey.

Fatigue is the most common symptom, followed by shortness of breath and muscle ache. Another is difficulty concentrating.

ONS stressed the findings were experimental statistics and that long Covid was an emerging phenomenon that was not fully understood.

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