Hounslow Struggling to Reach People With Positive Covid Tests


One of lowest success rates for notifying of need to self-isolate

Newly published figures show that over a quarter of people in Hounslow who receive a positive result from a Covid-19 are not being reached by the test and trace system.

Test-and-trace teams are struggling to reach people who have coronavirus to find out who they’ve been in touch with – one in five sick residents was not successfully contacted across the capital with more than a third of potentially infected residents unaware they need to self-isolate.

Hounslow had the fifth worst success rate for contacting people with the disease to inform them to self-isolate with just 76% of the 265 people who tested positive reached according to the latest Government data covering test-and-trace up to two weeks ago (Wednesday August 19).

Barking and Dagenham had the lowest success rate with just 69% traced. By contrast, Camden tracers reached 86 per cent of people in the borough, with 85 per cent contacted in Barnet.

In every borough, at least a quarter of people who could be sick, including those in contact with people with positive tests, were not contacted by test-and-trace – well over 4,000 so far.

Anyone who has the symptoms of coronavirus – a cough, high temperature, or loss of smell or taste – should self-isolate immediately and order a test to check if they have the disease.

Borough Data (Department of Health and Social Care)
People who tested positive who were contacted (up to 19 August)
Upper Tier Local Authority Total Reached Percentage
Barking and Dagenham 157 109 69
City of London & Hackney 313 230 73
Westminster 161 117 73
Kensington and Chelsea 104 78 75
Hounslow 265 202 76
Enfield 171 131 77
Waltham Forest 184 142 77
Brent 226 177 78
Ealing 274 213 78
Hammersmith and Fulham 148 115 78
Harrow 158 125 79
Lewisham 147 116 79
Southwark 180 142 79
Bexley 171 137 80
Islington 99 79 80
Kingston upon Thames 101 81 80
Redbridge 224 180 80
Bromley 126 102 81
Croydon 163 132 81
Haringey 141 114 81
Hillingdon 235 190 81
Sutton 106 86 81
Havering 161 132 82
Newham 234 191 82
Richmond upon Thames 110 91 83
Tower Hamlets 192 159 83
Greenwich 135 113 84
Lambeth 167 141 84
Merton 118 99 84
Wandsworth 187 157 84
Barnet 251 213 85
Camden 101 87 86
TOTAL 5510 4381 80

If they test positive for Covid-19, virus tracers will get in touch and ask who the person has been in touch with recently. Close contacts will then be notified that they may have the virus and told they should also self-isolate.

Once tracers have spoken to someone who has tested positive and compiled a list of their recent contacts, they then attempt to reach those people and tell them to self-isolate as well.

Hounslow also performed relatively poorly when it came to reaching these contacts with a success rate of just 58%, the fifth lowest of any London borough. Tracing teams spoke to less than half of potentially sick residents in Hackney and the City of London – meaning most people who need to self-isolate in the area are unaware of it.

Follow-up contacts reached (up to 19 August)
Non-complex close contacts identified
Upper Tier Local Authority Total Reached Not Reached Percentage
City of London & Hackney 693 333 360 48
Redbridge 490 257 233 52
Barking and Dagenham 282 150 132 53
Newham 556 305 251 55
Haringey 366 214 152 58
Hounslow 514 300 214 58
Lewisham 328 195 133 59
Tower Hamlets 429 253 176 59
Waltham Forest 429 251 178 59
Brent 485 294 191 61
Sutton 220 134 86 61
Greenwich 279 173 106 62
Havering 322 201 121 62
Hillingdon 506 316 190 62
Hammersmith and Fulham 267 167 100 63
Kensington and Chelsea 147 92 55 63
Bexley 339 224 115 66
Harrow 296 196 100 66
Barnet 549 367 182 67
Croydon 406 273 133 67
Ealing 522 349 173 67
Richmond upon Thames 328 219 109 67
Southwark 327 222 105 68
Westminster 289 197 92 68
Enfield 304 209 95 69
Islington 267 184 83 69
Camden 237 167 70 70
Kingston upon Thames 218 153 65 70
Lambeth 415 289 126 70
Wandsworth 421 295 126 70
Bromley 250 183 67 73
Merton 243 177 66 73
TOTAL 11724 7339 4385 63

The most successful boroughs in London were Merton and Bromley, but even in these areas less than three quarters (73 per cent) of potentially infected residents were contacted.

But London is faring better than the rest of England, reaching 80 per cent of people who tested positive for the disease compared to 77 per cent in the rest of England.

Test-and-trace is also better at following up with people who could have the virus in the capital – reaching 63 per cent of residents compared to 57 per cent in the rest of England.

For more information to get a test locally, click here.

Written with contributions from - Local Democracy Reporter

September 1, 2020