NEARLY a third of close contacts of people with coronavirus are not being reached by the test and trace system across Dorset, figures suggest.

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 8,007 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 23. The total for the Dorset Council area was 3,700.

That means 675 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period in BCP and 335 in Dorset.

Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

This led to more than 26,000 close contacts being identified county-wide over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.

But thousands of people were not contacted or did not respond.

Across England, 92.5 per cent of contacts not managed by local health protection teams were reached and told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace in the latest week to December 23.

Local health protection teams deal with cases linked to settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons.

The contact tracing rate including these cases was 92.6 per cent, in line with the week before.

Around 212,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 23.