THE successful launch of Wales' Covid- 19 contact tracing operation has been heralded as a possible "silver bullet" for lock down.

Up until the close of play on Sunday, June 14, 1,309 positive cases were referred to the Welsh Government for contact tracing, with 1,553 of 1,752 possible contacts being reached - a success rate of 88.6 percent.

The NHS Wales Test, Trace and Protect (TTP) system aims to track the virus' spread in the hopes to proactively containing the infection.

Following the high success rate of the first two weeks, Vale of Clwyd MS Ann Jones said: "TTP will hopefully prove to be the silver bullet to this phase of the pandemic and hopefully lead us to a return to the way of life before Covid-19.

"This is particularly welcome to the Vale of Clwyd, and Denbighshire as a whole, which has recently experienced a high number of cases.

"During the 1st week of operating some 627 cases, 300 in North Wales resulted in a 95 percent success rate of contact.

"If this success rate continues and the transmission rate drops, I'm sure the Welsh Government will be able to start safely easing lockdown measures."

Currently, the system is operated by about 700 staff working alongside local authorities in contact tracing teams across Wales, who call contacts identified by people receiving a positive test result and instruct them to isolate.

Additionally, a new national digital system has been rolled out across all regions and this will help to underpin an even more effective and robust operation going forward.

The figures were presented by Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething as the UK Government revealed to national media plans to abandon its contact tracing smartphone app in favour a different model.

Mrs Jones added: “ The decision by Welsh Government to use local public service workers to do the contacting has produced a 95 percent success rate in the first week.

"The fact that it is so successful in Wales, as opposed to some the issues we're seeing in England, is essential, and means my constituents in the Vale of Clwyd can have confidence in the system."