Public not requested for addresses for weeks throughout virus assessments

Folks being examined for coronavirus in England weren’t requested to offer addresses for weeks through the top of the pandemic, it has emerged.

The BBC understands Public Well being England is now making an attempt to match addresses to optimistic take a look at outcomes to know the unfold of the virus.

Councils say a few of the case information they obtain is “poor and incomplete”.

The federal government stated councils now have the power to entry information right down to the “particular person and postcode” degree.

However Labour’s shadow well being secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, stated the error “merely beggars perception”.

Well being Secretary Matt Hancock set a goal to hold out 100,000 assessments a day on 2 April.

‘Mallet’ method

However the Division of Well being and Social Care has confirmed customers of the service solely had to offer their postcode from 23 April.

Councils and native administrators of public well being advised the BBC that they had been asking the federal government for months for entry to information in regards to the quantity and development of circumstances of their areas.

Public Well being England started sharing take a look at information – together with postcodes – on 24 June, after councils started signing data-sharing agreements.

Because the nationwide lockdown eases additional, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken of a “whack-a-mole” method to fight outbreaks on an area degree.

It led to an area lockdown being carried out in Leicester, after a spike in circumstances throughout the town.

One director of public well being, who requested to stay nameless, advised the BBC not having dependable geographic information about circumstances regionally meant they had been utilizing “a mallet the scale of a district – you’re taking out much more than a mole”.