Large number of contact tracers to be fired/PM preparing to loosen lockdown...
 

The number of coronavirus contact tracers in England is set to be slashed - just as the prime minister prepares to announce a loosening of lockdown, according to leaked messages obtained by Sky News.

Test and Trace staff have been told that the workforce would be reduced "as a result of the decreasing levels of prevalence" of COVID-19 across the country, even though internal messages admit that cases are likely to increase after lockdown is lifted.

It is not known how many coronavirus contact tracers will be let go, but the message said the move would affect "a large number" of so-called Tier 3 contact tracers.

The contact tracers are employed on two-week rolling contracts by outsourcing giants Serco and Sitel, which manage the call centre aspects of the much-criticised Test and Trace operation.

They have been told that they will find out on 1 March whether or not they will be fired. Their contracts will then last until 8 March.

This comes after medically qualified Tier 2 contact tracers were told that their shifts would be cut by 10% earlier this week, according to a leaked email seen by Sky News.

However, the email assured Tier 2 contact tracers that they would still have work, saying: "As we move out of lockdown the expectation is that case volumes may increase again, although the hope is obviously not to the same levels we saw in January pre-lockdown."

Boris Johnson is set to announce his roadmap for relaxing restrictions on Monday. It has been widely reported that schools will go back in early March, at which point it is expected that contacts in the population will increase.

Experts questioned the timing of the move.

"It seems odd to me," said Dr Simon Clarke, professor of virology at the University of Reading.

"It's inevitable that as restrictions are lifted there will be upward pressure on R and infection numbers and they will be needed to react to that."



...full article...


https://uk.yahoo.com/news/covid-19-l...214500708.html

Save or Cal :worry:

don't relax restrictions so soon, otherwise cases will go up again, and you'll get a third wave

I’m not convinced in any way with this system ... a few weeks ago an expert on Sky suggested it was impossible to efficiently track and trace when new infections were above 1,000 daily ..

Then we had that scandal of thousands being paid massive amounts of money .. then loads of reports from track and tracers claiming they were sitting idle for days on end and then being given ONE case to follow up ..

Then we’re told that they’re successfully tracing something like 90% of contacts . ... yeah , right.


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They called me to tell me my mum had covid and i said yes she is in hospital and caught it there and the lady was flummoxed and said her senior person would call.

no call

Time for Fatima to retrain in cyber?

Terrible service anyway and so makes sense.

My flatmate got covid and isolated for 10, days, they rang him on the tenth day to tell him to isolate and he said he was free to go out tomorrow so it’s a bit bizarre to tell
Him and call him now. Likewise they called me another 4 days after that telling me to isolate and I was at the gym telling them I’ve served my time

Large number of contact tracers to be fired/PM preparing to loosen lockdown...
 

Yeah we got a call thanking us for self isolating and telling us we had two days left to do ... then I corrected her and said we had 4 days left ... she just hesitated and hung up .


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I work for a different part of it now gorg I’m not a contact tracer anymore

...do you think that it’s all trying to move people to different sections and roles Cal...to keep jobs, so they’re not actually fired but still in employ in other areas...?..media can be quite misleading, purposefully...

Good news

Yeah I would assume they’re moving people to work on the 119 testing helplines or on the vaccine helpline but I’m not 100% sure! X