The government led contract tracing with Preston City Council and Lancashire County Council has come to an end going forward to live with and manage Covid-19.
All Coronavirus regulations came to an end in England from 24 February. A practitioner and officer’s job in local contact tracing was to determine a person who had tested positive for COVID-19 of who they could have infected in the nearby area.
In 2020, Preston City Council was one of the first local authorities in Lancashire to undertake local contact tracing which has achieved positive results in keeping case numbers low nearly two years later.
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Adrian Phillips, Chief Executive at Preston City Council, said, “Since starting the contact tracing in August 2020, we have dealt with over 16,000 cases, which equates to almost 100,000 different activities in respect of those cases. We carried out over 3,000 home visits to enforce isolation and to offer welfare support to those who were isolating. Support was given to 2,600 households in isolation in terms of accessing food, medicine and other assistance.
“Working closely with other councils across Lancashire sharing experiences and best practice, there were also regular opportunities for discussion with Public Health and National Health colleagues. We are happy to say that we have been able to find other opportunities for the contact tracing staff who are now working in other services within the Council.
“Everyone in Preston deserves huge thanks for their collective efforts throughout this pandemic, whilst also remembering those sadly lost.”
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What do you think about local contact tracing coming to an end? Do you think we should go forward living with Covid-19? Let us know in the comments below.