MORE than a third of close contacts of people with coronavirus are not being reached by the test and trace system in St Helens, figures suggest.

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 8,138 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in St Helens were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and December 30, 2020.

That means 408 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period.

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 16,477 close contacts being identified over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.

But just 65.8 per cent of those were reached, meaning 5,636 people were not contacted or did not respond.

That was up from the 64.5 per cent reached in the period to December 23.

READ > St Helens' mass coronavirus testing centres to close temporarily on Friday

Across England, 92.3 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 30.

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

The contact tracing rate including these cases was 92.3 per cent, down from 92.6 per cent the week before.

Around 270,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to December 30.