North Yorkshire County Council staff to carry out contact-tracing calls to help stop spread of COVID-19

If the national Test and Trace system is unable to contact a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 and provide details to the national online system within 24 hours, this will be handed to the local contact tracing team for follow-up.

Local contact tracing calls will be undertaken by trained staff in the county council’s Customer Resource Centre, who will provide a seven-day-a-week service (9am-5pm Mon-Fri and 10am-1pm Sat-Sun).

Residents will be contacted on an 01609 number and spoken to by a member of the Customer Support team on behalf of public health, who will provide specialist support where needed through the public health hub.

North Yorkshire County Council’s Corporate Director of Health and Adult Services Richard Webb said: “Contact tracing and self-isolation play a vital role in controlling the number of cases across North Yorkshire.

“It is essential that people who need to isolate do so to help to drive down the rate of infection across the county. Therefore, we need the contact tracing system to be as efficient and effective as possible. Our county council customer support team, supported by colleagues from Public Health, have local knowledge and are used to contacting and talking to local people.”

Initially, the national test and trace system will try to contact someone who has tested positive using a 0300 number. If they are unable to contact the person within 24 hours, it will be handed to the local contact tracing team.

Any additional costs from contact tracing to the county council will be met through existing budgets and Government funding to support management of the coronavirus. The authority has been given access by Public Health England to test and trace training resources at no cost.