The prime minister has said he has “great confidence” that there will be a “world-beating” test, track and trace system in place by the time schools reopen to more pupils.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions today, Boris Johnson said the government was making “vast progress in testing and tracing”, and by 1 June a system would be ready to help “defeat this disease and move the country forward”.
He added that 24,000 trackers have already been recruited to assist with the test, track and trace operation, and it is hoped this number will increase to 25,000 by 1 June.
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His announcement comes the day after public health experts warned that opening schools to more pupils before the contact tracing system is in operation would risk a further spike in the coronavirus pandemic.
Asked by Labour leader Keir Starmer if a lack of tracing has amounted to a “huge hole in our defences” against coronavirus, Mr Johnson said: “Today I am confident that we will have a test and trace operation that will enable us - if all the other conditions are satisfied, and this is entirely provisional - that will enable us to make progress.
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“By 1 June - already we have recruited 24,000 trackers - by 1 June we will have 25,000.
“They will be capable of tracking the contacts of 10,000 new cases a day.
“We are making vast progress in testing and tracing, and I have great confidence that by 1 June we will have a system that will enable us - that will help us very greatly - to defeat this disease and move the country forward.”
He added: “We have growing confidence that we will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world-beating and, yes, it will be in place by 1 June.”
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “We are pleased the prime minister is listening to our concern about having contact tracing working before wider school opening.
“We have received no private assurances on this matter and we would like to see the contact tracing actually in place before schools do start adding to the R rate [the reproduction rate of Covid-19].
“We would urge the prime minister to respond to our other points including that all of the science considered by SAGE [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] around school opening questions should be put in the public domain and they should engage with the trades unions in negotiations about how to open schools safely.”
