Coronavirus: Derbyshire spike 'linked to Greater Manchester'

A rise in coronavirus cases in Derbyshire is linked to travel in and out of Greater Manchester, according to a public health expert.

Derbyshire's director of public health, Dean Wallace, made the claims as he criticised the Test and Trace system for a lack of data to quash outbreaks.

He said councils were instead having to "fill in the gaps".

However, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) insisted contact tracing "is working".

Mr Wallace told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that Test and Trace teams lacked local knowledge and have not realised certain areas pose particular problems, such as a spike in cases in Glossop and the High Peak being linked to Tameside and Greater Manchester, not the rest of Derbyshire.

He said details like ethnicity and employment were crucial "to fill in the jigsaw" and help identify employers or schools as the source of infections or further outbreaks, but they were "routinely" missed out.

"It is like running multiple investigations at once to work out who has gone where and where the infection started to try and close it off," he added.

"We are having to follow up in some cases because of what is not being done by that national system....and then we are having to do things locally to fill in the gaps."

Mr Wallace said: "We could have done this stuff faster and cheaper if we had been given the resources to do it.

"If there was more confidence in us we could have done something sooner and cheaper and brought money into Derbyshire to do that, and employ local test and tracers."

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham also highlighted failings in the contact tracing system saying it was "not fast enough" and "hampering efforts to control the region's spike.

He said the team had traced just 53% of contacts identified in Tameside, which borders Glossopdale.

The DHSC said Test and Trace has so far prevented 218,000 people from unknowingly spreading the virus.

"Every day local authorities receive test, case and contact tracing data, with further data being shared with local directors of public health, to support with their outbreak management responsibilities," it said.

"Local action to tackle outbreaks is crucial, which is why we are working so closely with all local authorities to provide additional support."

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