Contact tracing in Wales extended until March 2022

The Welsh Government has announced that the Test, Trace, Protect service, which has helped to reduce the spread of coronavirus, will be extended to next year, with a further injection of funding.

The latest figures show that almost a year after Test, Trace, Protect was launched in Wales, contact tracers have reached 99.7 per cent of the positive cases that were eligible for follow up. Now, the government has said that a further £32 million will be invested to extend contact tracing to March 2022.

Contact tracers and advisers working for the TTP service are now undertaking enhanced contact tracing to tackle variants of concern. They also manage and provide assurance to almost 18,000 travellers from amber list countries who must quarantine and take tests and take vaccination programme calls from the public, arrange bookings and follow up on those who do not attend.
   
Eluned Morgan, Health and Social Services Minister, said: “Test, Trace, Protect has been extremely effective at supporting people who have tested positive and their contacts to isolate and providing advice, guidance and support. It is critical to stopping the virus spreading in our communities.

“It’s a year since we set up Test, Trace, Protect from scratch – at what the Auditor General for Wales described as an extraordinary scale and at pace. A great deal of hard work across NHS Wales, local authorities, the voluntary sector and partner organisations has created a highly-effective programme to help us keep Wales safe. Everyone involved can be extremely proud of their efforts. As we seek to stop the spread of new variants of concern, experienced contact tracers are key to doing this effectively and we are continuing to invest in this work.”