Coronavirus: 14-day quarantine for Covid contacts could be reduced - BBC News
The two-week quarantine period for contacts of those who test positive for Covid-19 could be halved, amid criticism of NHS Test and Trace.
Writing in the Telegraph, Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said a "vacuum of leadership in Test and Trace" was affecting compliance.
Ministers are considering reducing the period to either 10 or seven days.
The government said the daily 400,000 test capacity is bigger per head than France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Research by King's College London suggested just 10.9% of those traced as contacts of someone with Covid-19 remained at home for the full quarantine period.
Earlier this month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was "very hopeful" of reducing the amount of time people needed to spend in quarantine on arrival in the UK from abroad and this could be done by testing them a week later.
The Telegraph said similar tests could be offered to anyone after a week in isolation.
'Spaghetti of command'
Sir Bernard, chairman of the Commons liaison committee, said public consent and co-operation with England's system was "breaking down".
He said there should be a "visible and decisive" change, with a senior military figure put in charge of the system.
Baroness Dido Harding, currently at the helm, should be "given a well-earned break" so she and others could "reflect on the lessons learned so far", he wrote in the paper.
"There is a spaghetti of command and control at the top, which is incapable of coherent analysis, assessment, planning and delivery," he added. "People lack faith that there is a coherent plan."
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said NHS Test and Trace had contacted more 1.1 million people and asked them to self-isolate.
"Dido Harding and her leadership team - drawn from the military, public and private sectors - have built the largest diagnostic industry the UK has ever seen.
"It is the equivalent of building an operation the size of Tesco in a matter of months," the DHSC spokesperson said.
"We need to improve in areas and we are very much focused on that, but we should be talking it up not down."
Last month, it was announced that former Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe would be taking over as director of Covid-19 testing at England's NHS Test and Trace agency.
The two-week quarantine period for contacts of those who test positive for Covid-19 could be halved, amid criticism of NHS Test and Trace.
Writing in the Telegraph, Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said a "vacuum of leadership in Test and Trace" was affecting compliance.
Ministers are considering reducing the period to either 10 or seven days.
The government said the daily 400,000 test capacity is bigger per head than France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Research by King's College London suggested just 10.9% of those traced as contacts of someone with Covid-19 remained at home for the full quarantine period.
Earlier this month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was "very hopeful" of reducing the amount of time people needed to spend in quarantine on arrival in the UK from abroad and this could be done by testing them a week later.
The Telegraph said similar tests could be offered to anyone after a week in isolation.
'Spaghetti of command'
Sir Bernard, chairman of the Commons liaison committee, said public consent and co-operation with England's system was "breaking down".
He said there should be a "visible and decisive" change, with a senior military figure put in charge of the system.
Baroness Dido Harding, currently at the helm, should be "given a well-earned break" so she and others could "reflect on the lessons learned so far", he wrote in the paper.
"There is a spaghetti of command and control at the top, which is incapable of coherent analysis, assessment, planning and delivery," he added. "People lack faith that there is a coherent plan."
A Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said NHS Test and Trace had contacted more 1.1 million people and asked them to self-isolate.
"Dido Harding and her leadership team - drawn from the military, public and private sectors - have built the largest diagnostic industry the UK has ever seen.
"It is the equivalent of building an operation the size of Tesco in a matter of months," the DHSC spokesperson said.
"We need to improve in areas and we are very much focused on that, but we should be talking it up not down."
Last month, it was announced that former Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe would be taking over as director of Covid-19 testing at England's NHS Test and Trace agency.
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