SCOTLAND'S test and protect tracking performance is 'missing' over 400 positive tested patients as the number of people checked has slumped, raising fresh questions on how effective it is.
It comes as new figures reveal the number of positive Covid cases has more than trebled and the numbers in intensive care have doubled in two weeks.
In the seven days to Thursday there were 59,608 people tested for Covid-19, including home testing, which was 32,375 fewer than the previous seven days, a 35 per cent drop.
Last Monday alone, some 6,108 were tested for coronavirus in Scotland - the lowest in two weeks and over 10,000 fewer than the previous Monday.
Meanwhile the number of people testing postive for Covid has more than trebled over the two weeks, rising from 51 at the end of August to 175 on Friday.
READ MORE: Unreliable 'name and shame' Covid-19 test tracking in Scots care homes abandoned
The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units in Scotland has more than doubled over those two weeks from 3 on August 28 to seven on Thursday.
And the number of care homes with a suspected case of Covid-19 has started rising. There were 66 on August 26 and on Wednesday that had gone up by 12 to 78 - with nine in the previous seven days alone.
An important part of Test and Protect is to track all positive cases of coronavirus and their contacts to protect the public from spreading Covid-19 and prevent a second peak.
Official Test and Protect figures published by Public Health Scotland show that 25 out of 2941 who tested positive for Covid-19 between June 22 and September 5, were unable to be followed up.
But over the same period according to the Electronic Communication of Surveillance in Scotland (ECOSS) system developed by Health Protection Scotland to capture laboratory results there were actually 3356 people who tested positive for Covid over the same period. That's 415 more.
It comes a month after the Herald on Sunday revealed the Scottish Government admitted it was unable to demonstrate the effectiveness of Scotland's flagship Test and Protect system and that it was not expected to be in place till the end of that month.
READ MORE: Coronavirus - the decade-old warnings about unpreparedness and mass testing left unheeded
The government has come under rising pressure to improve its testing ability as the nation faces a second wave of Covid-19.
Asked about the 'missing 415' the Scottish Government said that the Track and Trace data was "developmental" and that while CMS went live on June 22, NHS boards started using it in a phased approach. Boards had been previously been using a 'tracing tool' which "did not give the level of granularity required..."
All boards were due to be fully functioning on CMS from July 21.
The Scottish Government deny that there were 415 peoplewith positive tests who could not be traced by boards.
The respected Scottish think tank Common Weal which is wanting mass random sample testing in local communities to keep the virus at bay says that since the start of the crisis it has become "increasingly concerned" that Scotland does not seem to be following best practice on Covid management from the very start of the crisis.
It said it produced in April a fully-costed decentralised community random testing system plan to catch evidence of outbreak at the earliest point to prevent a second lockdown "at all costs".
It said the Scottish Government changed tack two weeks later and announced it would reinstate a testing regime.
But when details were provided two weeks after that it was quite a different system to the one proposed.
It said it involved self-reporting "so couldn't catch infection before it became an outbreak and it was centralised so rapid localised action wasn't possible".
Common Weal director Robin McAlpine said: "The purpose of lockdown is to get the community transmission as low as possible but that does not defeat the virus. You need to get the community transmission as low as possible so that you can effectively control it from there. But that needs the early testing and very local, very fast response measures taken in other countries.
"Creating bespoke lockdowns on the fly and imposing them on entire regions based on the terribly limited datasets the low level of testing Scotland is providing is very hard to justify."
At the start of August the Scottish Government said that the National Contact Tracing Centre and Public Health Scotland was continuing to work with CMS [Case Management System] users across the territorial health boards to "improve data quality ahead of publication".
Scientists say clear data on testing and subsequent contact tracing is crucial to be able to have a clear idea whether the spread of Covid-19 can be curbed.
Last month researchers from University College London (UCL) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned the current testing and contact tracing south of the border was inadequate to prevent a second wave of coronavirus after schools reopened.
This is because the contact tracing system must reach at least 68 per cent of people who have tested positive for coronavirus, and their contacts, in order to contain the spread.
At that point the system reached 50 per cent of contacts and only a small fraction of symptomatic cases were tested.
The researchers said the most recent data showed about 81% of positives being interviewed, about 81% of those reporting contacts and about 75% of those contacts being reached equating to 50% coverage.
The Scottish Government's Test and Protect policy kicked in on May 28 to ensure there was no further spread of Covid-19 and there have continuing calls to ensure it is fit-for-purpose.
The Scottish Greens have said testing capacity must be ready for the start of the university term.
They raised concerns that the system had been overloaded when schools returned, with many parents having to travel hundreds of miles to access a test.
Patrick Harvie, co-leader of the Scottish Green said: “We saw that the testing system broke down when children returned to school last month. With university terms commencing next week, we need to make sure the same doesn’t happen again, and that students are kept safe.
“The rise in infections in Scotland is concerning, but a blame game helps nobody. We welcome the clearer guidance about meeting in groups, but we must ensure the support and systems are in place so that they can be followed.”
Mr Harvie also raised concerns by teaching union the EIS over the provision of education for children with additional support needs under current restrictions, which prevents close contact and one-to-one support.
Last week it emerged that technical difficulties dogged a vital electronic reporting tool to ensure Covid safety in care homes as laboratory issues were resulting in fewer tests to staff and delays in results of up to ten days.
Scotland turned to Ireland to help create its own contact tracing app to support NHS Scotland’s Test and Protect system which has just been launched.
Umbrella body Scottish Care said the timing of Covid test results had deteriorated, coinciding with the re-opening of schools.
Scottish Care said the problems have led to a "lack of faith in the integrity, resilience and rigour of the national testing programme" and called for Scottish Government intervention.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The number of tests carried out will fluctuate according to demand, just as the number of positive results will go up and down.
“We are constantly scrutinising options which could help keep the virus suppressed while allowing peoples’ lives to return to as close to normal as possible, including extending community testing.
"We are working closely and at pace with the UK Government and others to ensure we implement suitable options as soon as we are assured they are effective and practicable.
“We continue to work towards the target set out in our testing strategy of building laboratory processing capacity to approximately 65,000 tests per day between NHS Scotland laboratories and the Lighthouse Lab in Glasgow as we move into the autumn and winter."
Daily coronavirus cases in Scotland hit a four-month high on Saturday, with a total of 221 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours - the highest daily figure since May 8, when there were 225 positive tests.
It comes as tougher lockdown coronavirus restrictions have been imposed on 'hotspots' including North and South Lanarkshire, Glasgow, East and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel