The Welsh Conservatives Shadow Health Minister Russell George has said that
the "rapid fall in the ability to reach contacts of positive [Covid] cases" is "certainly an area of concern."
New figures have shown less than half of people who tested positive for Covid-19 were reached by NHS Wales’ Test, Trace, Protect system within 24 hours.
Of 13,504 cases identified in the latest week, only 42% were reached by the tracing system, down from 57% the previous week and 88% the week before.
Responding, Welsh Conservative and Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said:
As we enter the autumn and winter months, we must be vigilant to ensure that we can identify cases in the event that they could become more serious as they circulate at the same time the flu usually does.
“That’s why the rapid fall in the ability to reach contacts of positive cases in good time is certainly an area of concern, especially when Wales already has the highest Covid deathrate in the UK.
“Although this can likely be contributed to by the increase in cases, the Welsh Government’s job, especially when we could see this increase coming, is to ensure the capacity is there in the tracing system to respond to this. Otherwise, we might as well not have contact tracing at all.
“The Welsh tracing system has had some success during its time in operation, but we know it has had its weak points as it has not prevented Wales having the highest death rate of UK nations. We need the system to work effectively to change this unfortunate fact.”