HEALTH secretary Matt Hancock said the test and trace system helped to control an outbreak of coronavirus in Kirklees.

The news was revealed in today's daily briefing, where Mr Hancock said the manual tracing system had helped control local outbreaks in “parts of Leicester” and Kirklees, with mobile testing units sent in to help track down positive cases.

He said: “There are these local outbreaks, we’ve seen them all the way through.

“And we now have the system in place to be able to spot them the best we can and then take that local action.

“It is natural that as the lockdown lifts slightly, we’ve always said that the next move is for more localised action in order to tackle outbreaks where we find them.”

Mr Hancock told the Downing Street press conference that the local action committee was the formal process for deciding where measures were needed.

He said the local director of public health and the council were “heavily involved” in dealing with an outbreak in Kirklees.

Setting out how the system worked, he said: “We have a process so that if, on the ground, they need powers that I have, they can put that request up and we can look at that.

“Similarly, if we spot a problem we can go down to the council and ask what they are doing about it.

“That process is in place and it’s up and running and working.”