A BOROUGH’S public health director has fiercely criticised the government for rushing in its coronavirus test and trace system before local authorities are ready to implement it.

Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Professor Dominic Harrison said he and his colleagues were ‘astonished’ when the start date was suddenly brought forward from Monday to 9am yesterday.

He said this was no long enough to get the system in place locally without Whitehall cash or new staff .

Prof Harrison said it would further pressurise overworked council public health staff and divert them from other urgent work to contain Covid-19.

On Friday the government announced £300million nationwide for local authorities to develop tailored track and trace plans but has yet to allocate the cash.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was confident people would participate in the system which already has 25,000 staff working for England’s national NHS team.

Tracers will contact people who test positive with coronavirus and ask those they have had contact with to isolate for 14 days.

Professor Harrison said: “Many local authority directors of public health were astonished to be given two hours notice that the track and trace system launch would be announced by the government on Wednesday evening with the launch date brought forward from June 1 to 9am the next morning. We did not receive any clear explanation as to why this was necessary.

“Unfortunately many of the systems required are not yet properly in place. The data collection and sharing systems are not yet fully operational, the testing system is unlikely to be able to return tests in 24 hours,the funding promised for local government last Friday has not been allocated and as a result no new staff are yet in place.

“This has meant that already very overworked staff are having to re-prioritise urgent other Covid-19 work to focus on bringing forward what were already very challenging planning deadlines to establish the local test and trace system..”

Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Lancashire County Council’s public health director, said: “The national programme has only just been announced, and we are waiting for more details.”

The Department of Health failed to respond to repeated requests for comment.