Dido Harding has insisted the track and trace system is working, despite more missed targets and the number of close contacts being reached falling to a record low.

Serco and Sitel, the two private firms hired to handle the national test and trace programme, are due to receive over £1bn for their work on the scheme. Serco receives 40% of its overall income from contracts running UK public services, according to The Justice Gap.

Professor Anthony Costello, a former director of maternal and child health at the World Health Organisation and former director of UCL’s Institute for Global Health, said: “The whole thing is public health malpractice and it’s being designed [and] led by government ideology. They wanted a private system; it has failed, and we need to keep saying that.”

Dido looks dopey to me!

Sir Keir's call for an apology over testing comes as the government introduces fines of up to £10,000 for people who fail to self-isolate after being ordered to do so. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, Sir Keir said Labour would support "whatever measure" ministers take to suppress virus cases.

But he added: "If I were the prime minister, I would apologise for the fact we're in this situation with testing. Throughout the summer, we were saying 'prepare for the autumn'. Instead, we had the exams fiasco. I would make fixing testing the number one priority, and reinstate the daily press conferences so we know what's going on."

13:57
Sarah Owen (Lab) asks the PM to justify why every pupil at Eton can get a test, when children at a nursery in her constituency cannot get tested.

Johnson says every child should be able to get a test.

13:46
Zarah Sultana (Lab) says the PM calls it NHS Test and Trace, but it would be more accurate to call is Serco Test and Trace. Contacts have gone to friends of ministers. She says it would be better for the service to be publicly run.

Johnson says it is right to reach out to the private sector for help. But the army are involved too, he says.

13:44
Ben Bradshaw (Lab) asks Johnson if he thinks Germany has a lower death rate because it has locally-run test and trace systems.

Johnson says he does not accept that. He says it is wrong to criticise test and trace. He says the UK is a freedom-loving country, and he implies that limits the restrictions people want to accept.

4:10
Johnson said the Labour attacks on NHS Test and Trace were “disgraceful”. He said there was “a complete hiatus in their logic”. They were “talking absolute nonsense”. Labour claim the problems with testing have led to the rise case numbers, he said, but he said this factor had “very little” to do with the transmission of the disease.

The number of schools in England badly affected by Covid-19 cases among students and staff has quadrupled in the space of a week, according to estimates released by the Department for Education this afternoon.

The DfE’s figures showed that 4% of state schools were classed as “not fully open” last week because of Covid-19, compared with just 1% of schools seven days before. The total included cases where entire year groups had been sent home or where more than 10% of the school’s roll was missing,

That means nearly 900 schools were badly affected, in a week when many head teachers and parents complained they were unable to access coronavirus tests, meaning that those showing symptoms had to be kept away from the classroom. Including independent schools, the figure for England is likely to have been close to 1,000 schools overall.

Hi

It is an absolute disaster and making us fools in the eyes of the World,

It is run on an Excel Spreadsheet, which is a joke.

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/po...n-excel/05/10/

Shock and despair follow revelations that ‘world-beating’ Test and Trace system is being run on Excel

News that Britain’s ‘world-beating’ Test and Trace system is being run on Excel has been met with shock and despair today.

The weekly rate of new Covid-19 cases soared in dozens of areas of England, following the addition of nearly 16,000 cases that went unreported by because of a technical error with the spreadsheet.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was unable to say on Monday morning how many contacts of positive coronavirus cases had been missed, but it is likely to be a significant amount.

The issue occurred when people who tested positive were not recorded once a master Excel spreadsheet reached its maximum size – 16,384 columns, aka “XFD”.

The latest figures from the Test and Trace service in England show that the close contacts of 68.6% of people who tested positive for Covid-19 were reached in the week ending 30 September.

That is down from 72.5% the previous week and is the lowest weekly percentage since Test and Trace began in May. It comes as the service faced its largest ever number of positive tests with 51,475 confirmed cases, a 56% increase on the previous week.