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Britain begins new 'test and trace' coronavirus program

Manchester United Stadium honors NHS workers on April 16 for working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, in Manchester, Britain. File Photo by Peter Powell/EPA-EFE
Manchester United Stadium honors NHS workers on April 16 for working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, in Manchester, Britain. File Photo by Peter Powell/EPA-EFE

May 28 (UPI) -- The British government began a new test and trace program on Thursday that's designed to keep the coronavirus disease from unnecessarily spreading.

The program asks anyone who's been in close contact with someone with COVID-19 to isolate for two weeks, even if they have no symptoms.

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The new program is intended to keep better track of the disease in Britain and mitigate the spread from people who may not know they have the virus.

Thursday's rollout was marred by some technical issues. Volunteers said they received "critical incident" messages on the website and some National Health Service workers said they weren't able to log in at all.

"As with all large scale operations, some staff initially encountered issues logging on to their systems," the Department of Health and Social Care said Thursday. "These issues are rapidly being resolved."

NHS Test and Trace Executive Chairwoman Dido Harding cautioned lawmakers the program probably wouldn't be completely operational until the end of June.

A doctor who helped set up Britain's first test and trace program in Sheffield said Wednesday that only about a third of patients it contacted agreed to self-isolate.

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