Why the Test and Trace system is failing

It was sold to the country as a vital line of defence against Covid-19 – a state-of-the-art operation to stop the virus before it had a chance to spread. Ministers promised that the new £12 billion NHS Test and Trace programme would keep the virus at bay over the winter, allowing people to carry on their daily lives without fear of another lockdown. More than five months later, Covid cases are surging again, and this week the Government's Sage committee issued its verdict – NHS Test and Trace is not working. Test As coronavirus faded over the summer, Boris Johnson made a bold promise to prepare for winter by increasing Britain's testing capacity to half a million every day by the end of October. Yet data from NHS England showed that the number of tests completed last week only increased by five per cent compared to the week before.