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.

Newham will receive £2,843,060 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, Nick Vandyke, the local Conservative candidate for the London Assembly, said:

I pay tribute to everyone in West Ham who is working tirelessly to help control the spread of coronavirus locally.

This additional funding from the Government will be key to supporting our local efforts, and I will work with local authority leaders to ensure that it is put to good use.

Tackling coronavirus requires us all to play our part, engaging with the new Test and Trace Service where we need to and continuing to stay alert, to control the virus, and save lives.

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.

Notes

• The Government is providing an additional £300 million to local authorities, helping them to support the new test and trace service in their local communities in England. Each local authority will be given funding to develop tailored outbreak control plans, working with local NHS and other stakeholders. Their plans will focus on identifying and containing potential outbreaks in places such as workplaces, housing complexes, care homes and schools. As part of this work, local authorities will also need to ensure testing capacity is deployed effectively to high-risk locations. (Department of Health and Social Care, Press Release, 22 May 2020)