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Yesterday, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that the unidentified person who tested positive for COVID-19 with the Brazil variant, had been traced. He was quick to heap praise on Contact Tracers for helping find the person. However, deep in most mainstream reports on the matter lies a fact nobody has noticed; The person was only identified when they called NHS 111.

Matt Hancock used his appearance at yesterday’s Downing Street COVID briefing to praise the multi billion pound Test and Trace system for helping identify the missing Brazil variant patient. He made no mention of how an alledgedly traceable test, was somehow untraceable.

Mr Hancock said contact-tracers had worked “flat out” to narrow the search. Going on to say:

“The best evidence is this person in question stayed at home and there’s no sign that there’s been any onward transmission but as a precaution we’re putting more testing in in Croydon, where they live, to minimise risk of spread,”

However, as reported by the BBC and other new outlets, Dr Hopkins of Public Health England (PHE) said the person was finally identified when “they called the NHS 111″ number.

It appears Matt Hancock has been saved from scrutiny of how the billion pound system failed because the person took the sensible step to self isolate.

It seems odd that the big news outlets are happy to repeat Mr Hancock’s claims of Test and Trace finding the person, whilst simultaneously reporting something which contradicts it.

It’s no doubt they narrowed down the number of people it could be, but over a week’s work and it was only sheer luck that brought them success.

If a public inquiry is held into the UK Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Test and Trace system os likely to come under close scrutiny due to its spiraling cost and failures like this.

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