Torbay’s MP Kevin Foster has welcomed news Torbay Council will receive £886,457 as part of the launch of the wider NHS Test and Trace Service.
Every local authority in England has been provided with a share of £300 million to develop tailored outbreak control plans, which will set out measures to identify and contain potential coronavirus outbreaks locally in places such as workplaces, housing complexes, care homes and schools.
Torbay Council will receive £886,457 to develop and implement its plan, and will work closely with the local NHS and local public health directors, as well as the new NHS Test and Trace Service to ensure it has sufficient resources to tackle to virus locally. This could, for example, include using the money to recruit additional staff where they are required to support local services.
Local efforts will be crucial to support the national rollout of NHS Test and Trace, which the Government has confirmed has already tracked tens of thousands of contacts of people who have tested positive for coronavirus. Test and Trace will be a crucial way of starting to get society back to some sense of normality in the months ahead.
Commenting, Kevin Foster MP said:
“The teamwork in our bay over the last three months has seen our community avoid the worst impacts of Covid-19 and set us on the road to recovery. Now as we look forward to re-opening more of our economy we must stay alert and keep the virus under control.
This funding will help ensure we can deliver the test and trace system to track down, but we all need to play our part by getting tested if we have symptoms and self-isolating if asked to. People across our bay have done so much to support our NHS and our community already I know they will play their part in this."
Minister for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Nadine Dorries said:
“Local authorities will be vital in the effort to contain Covid-19 at a community level. The pandemic requires a national effort but that will only be effective as a result of local authorities, working hand in hand with Public Health England and contact tracers to focus on the containment of local outbreaks, in order to control the transmission and the spread of the virus.
“For contact tracing to be effective when it is rolled out, we will need people to continue to follow guidelines and stay at home if they have symptoms.”
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