Recruit a network of volunteer street wardens in the fight against Covid-19

• MANAGEMENT of Test and Trace, a vital but failing component in the fight against the Covid-19 virus, is being transferred to local councils, including Camden.

The council will be expected to use the existing teams of national tracers recruited by Serco, a company created in 1987 with the express purpose of taking over and monetising public services.

This restriction will hamper the council’s ability to carry out the kind of mass testing and tracing necessary in order to identify where the virus is and who has got it. But there is no choice, Serco and its 29 sub-contractors have the cash, £15billiion of public money.

To overcome this handicap Camden will need to utilise existing local resources, particularly GP practices and other NHS facilities, in order to identify where the virus is and who are the vulnerable at-risk residents.

Tracing will have to be carried out on a hyper-local basis, street by street and block by block. Those identified as infected, along with the places where they live, will have to be isolated and supported financially and in other ways.

There is growing public disillusionment with the inadequate, expensive attempts implemented so far to control the spread of the virus.

Reassurance is vital, residents’ involvement crucial. To this end, a network of volunteer street wardens along the lines of the Second World War ARP wardens should be recruited to assist with the distribution and collection of the self-testing kits, tracing, isolation and communication.

South Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand among others, have used similar tactics to successfully suppress the virus. They still get outbreaks, but they are dealt with quickly and efficiently.

We are about to go into a lockdown again with no realistic end in sight, only a review date in December. Christmas celebrations are likely to be cancelled for the first time since the 1650s.

We cannot avoid the lockdown, but we might be able to save Christmas. So, over to you Camden Council.

DON RYAN
Hadley Street, NW1