TEST and Protect is still just shy of the international performance standard but is expected to improve further, the Health Secretary has said.
Humza Yousaf said Scotland’s contact tracing system has come under “extreme pressure” due to the recent spike in cases. He denied claims from opposition parties that the system had “cut corners” in order to improve turnaround times.
As Covid cases surged at the end of June and in early July, Test and Protect fell below the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standard of having 80% of cases closed within 72 hours of an initial infection being confirmed.
The most recent figures, for the week ending July 11, showed the turnaround times had improved but fewer contacts were being identified per case than earlier in the pandemic.
Yousaf said: “There’s no doubt there’s been extreme pressure on the Test and Protect system “The action we’ve taken has seen an improvement now in terms of contact tracing numbers. Still shy of the WHO 80% mark, we’re getting very close to it. I would expect an even better improvement in next week’s figures.”
He said the Government is constantly looking to improve performance in the system and there could be “perfectly understandable” reasons for the lower number of contacts identified per case.
READ MORE: Scotland records 19 coronavirus deaths and 2086 cases in 24 hours
On Wednesday, Labour and the Conservatives accused the Government of “cutting corners” in order to meet the WHO target. Yousaf said opposition parties have been making “mischief” around the issue, adding: “What we do we do for good clinical reasons.”
Yesterday’s figures shows Scotland had recorded 19 deaths of coronavirus patients in the previous 24 hours and 2806 new cases.
The daily test positivity rate was 6.6%.
A total of 543 people were in hospital on Wednesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 28 in 24 hours, and, of these, 47 patients were in intensive care, up one.
So far, 3,956,549 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 2,927,130 have received their second dose.
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