Bedford Borough Council to support local Covid tracing

Bedford residents who have tested positive will either be phoned or visited by a team from the council if national contact tracers are unable reach them in the first 24 hours.

Bedford Borough Council is now running a local Test and Trace service, working with the national NHS Test and Trace to help contact local residents who have tested positive for COVID-19.

This will help ensure that details of their close contacts are captured quickly.

Those people can then be contacted and told that they need to self-isolate, break the chain of infection, and help slow the spread in Bedford further.

When an individual tests positive for COVID-19, the national NHS Test and Trace service will try to contact them.

If NHS Test and Trace is unable to get in touch after 24 hours, Bedford Borough Council will follow up, by phone, by text or by coming to the door.

Phone calls and text messages will come from a local 01234 or private number and, if visited at home, it will be by a council officer with an ID badge.

If contacted by the NHS Test and Trace or by Bedford Borough Council to ask about contacts, it’s important that people share information open and honestly.

This information will be handled with strictest confidence. Sharing contacts will help to keep communities safe, save lives and avoid further restrictions on public life.

Cllr Louise Jackson, portfolio holder for Health and Wellbeing said: “By supporting the national Test and Trace service on a local level, people will receive a local call from local services which will help to us to reach more people and prevent more people from being infected.

“We know the area, so we can go round and knock on doors if needs be.

"Test and Trace is an important part in controlling the spread of the virus and keeping numbers in Bedford Borough down.

“If you test positive for Covid-19, you must self-isolate for 10 days, and anyone identified as a close contact of a positive case must self-isolate for 14 days.

"If contacted by either the NHS Test and Trace service or by the Council please help us to reach those people.”

If you have symptoms of coronavirus - a new, continuous cough, high temperature, or a loss of, or change to your sense of taste or smell- you should book a test via nhs.uk/coronavirus or by calling 119.

Free testing is available 7 days a week in Bedford.

Read: New COVID-19 walk-in testing centre will open in Bedford this week