EAST Lancashire residents who test positive for Covid have been given advice on how to provide details of their recent contacts as required by the government.

As Omicron cases continue to rise across the country, Blackburn with Darwen Council is recommending adults who become infected to complete their contact tracing online as soon as they can after getting a positive result.

Doing it online means that individuals are in control and can choose a time that suits them to complete contact tracing and are less likely to receive 'Test and Trace' phone calls at potentially inconvenient times.

The online link for over-18s will be individual, linking with the eight-character account ID allocated to a positive result through CTAS, the national Contact Tracing and Advice System. This will be sent to those who test positive by text or email shortly after they receive notification of a positive test result.

Top tips for completing the contact tracing online form include:

• before starting, gather together all the information needed;

- have your name, date of birth and postcode;

- have the details of the people you live with;

- have all the places you’ve been to in the last two weeks, such as a workplace or school;

- have the names and contact details of any people you were in close contact with before your symptoms started (if you know these details); and

• allocate around 30 minutes when you won’t be interrupted and can complete the form in one go.

It’s important to note that positive cases have only eight hours after testing positive to complete the online contact tracing form, before getting phone calls from 'Test and Trace' operators.

The ‘clock stops’ daily at 8pm until 8am the next day. This means that if people receive their CTAS account ID and contact tracing link at 6pm on a Tuesday, they would have until 2pm on the Wednesday to complete the online contact tracing form before receiving a phone call.

Prof Dominic Harrison, Blackburn with Darwen’s public health director, said: “As Covid case rates rise significantly in all areas of the borough, our contact tracing team have more people to contact as quickly as possible after they test positive. Completing contact tracing online is not only more convenient for the individual – who can choose the best time for them to get it done – but it also frees up valuable time for our contact tracers to call those people who don’t have internet access as swiftly as possible.

“The quicker the contact tracing process is complete, the quicker we can notify people that they are close contacts so that they can do the right thing – for unvaccinated people this means self-isolating immediately. This all helps in our battle to slow the spread of the Omicron variant which we know is much more easily passed on that previous coronavirus variants.”

"If the positive Covid case is under 18 years, a parent or carer must answer the contact tracing questions over the phone, together with the young person.

"Of course, anyone who doesn’t have internet access can still complete the contact tracing process over the telephone – they will be called shortly after receiving their positive test result."

For more information about the contact tracing process, residents can visit the coronavirus section of council website: www.blackburn.gov.uk/coronavirus/test-trace-self-isolate.