Test and trace boss Dido Harding enters self-isolation

Baroness Dido Harding, executive chairwoman of NHS Test and Trace, during a media briefing in Downing Street, London, on coronavirus (COVID-19). Photograph: PA. - Credit: PA

The boss of Test and Trace has revealed she is self-isolating.

Dido Harding, the Conservative peer, becomes the latest politician to receive notice that she must stay away from the public over Covid-19 fears.

She tweeted that she had received a notification on her mobile app to do so “overnight”.

She wrote: “Nothing like personal experience of your own products ….got this overnight. Feeling well. Many hours of Zoom ahead.”

But with Harding advised to self-isolate for just nine days – rather than the full 14 – suggests a delay in her team’s process in tracking and tracing.

NHS guidance says that the app will recommend staying away from others for a fortnight period.

Dido Harding is reporting this morning that she has to self-isolate after coming into contact with someone who's COVID-19 positive.

The screenshot she provided from her test-and-trace app shows she has 9 days of isolation left. Which suggests the contact happened 5 days ago! pic.twitter.com/EI3Ajdb9ZA

— Edwin Hayward 🦄 🗡 (@uk_domain_names) November 18, 2020

Comedian David Schneider tweeted: “Dear Lord, Give me the confidence of someone whose organisation has taken £12bn of taxpayers’ money boasting that it took 5 days to be notified.”

James Felton wrote: “Don’t want to brag but thanks to my fantastic system I only spent five whole days spreading a deadly disease”

Another replied: “So everyone gets to wander around for five days after encountering someone with Covid? Seems like your system might be…a bit s**t?”

Harding follows Boris Johnson and a number of other Conservative MPs who have been told to isolate after Lee Anderson MP received a positive test result, but it is not clear if Harding’s case is linked.

Last week Harding’s husband, John Penrose, was told to self-isolate after potentially coming into contact with someone who has coronavirus.