Frustrated London council chiefs have blamed the failure of the Government’s “world beating” test and trace system on its early refusal to involve local authorities.
New figures have shown the £12 billion NHS project is still failing to reach 40 per cent of close contacts of people testing positive six months after it was launched.
Senior town hall bosses said the initial decision to create a centralised system using call centres to contact people hundreds of miles away fatally undermined its effectiveness.
Julian Bell, leader of Labour-controlled Ealing council, said: “If they’d taken the decision [to involve councils] early on, we’d be in a much better position now. We’ll end up with more people in hospital and who die as a result.”
Local authorities are now more involved in test and trace but critics say the earlier decision to overlook them contributed to the second wave of infections this autumn.
