South Ribble Council to search for local Covid cases that national tracers cannot find

A meeting of the borough council’s cabinet heard that a local team will attempt to locate Covid-positive residents who have not been tracked down by the national test and trace system within 24 hours.

However, as part of the so-called “case tracing” process, responsibility for finding the contacts of infected individuals will remain with the national set-up.

Although local involvement officially began late last week, council leader Paul Foster said that the authority had already carved out a role for itself – in spite of only been given access to the relevant data in recent days.

“We do everything we possibly can when there are any outbreaks in South Ribble just to do the track and tracing for ourselves anyway.

“One of the challenges we have had is that we desperately need resources so we can [get] 30 boots on the ground.

“The £12bn national track and trace system isn’t being devolved down to local government, we’re having to put some of our own resources into it.

“To try and make it more local, Serco and the other private providers have been asked to create hubs wherever they are based that speak directly [to local areas], “ Cllr Foster explained.

Case-tracing powers have been rolled out to districts across Lancashire since they were first acquired in August.

Prior to that, the county’s public health officials were already tasked with dealing with the most complex cases or those involving outbreaks in health and education establishments.

It is expected that the role of Lancashire’s local authorities in testing and tracing will be deepened in the coming weeks as part of the county’s shift to the Tier 3 “very high” Covid alert level and its associated restrictions.

Around a quarter of the £42m in funding secured by Lancashire to mitigate the effects of the tighter lockdown in the county is earmarked for increasing test and trace capacity.