The test and trace system is not enough to protect us against a second wave of infections

The launch of the NHS test and trace system is both late and premature. Late in the sense it should never have been abandoned; and premature because infection levels and the R rate are both still too high for it to cope. This is even more dangerous with the latest rush to end lockdown ​– allowing six people to gather together outdoors.

The health secretary will find little to boast about when he has to defend his latest flop to Kay Burley.

On the day when, for now, Dominic Cummings looks as though he has got away with his breach of the lockdown rules, the authorities have added injury to insult with a plan to limit the further spread of Covid-19 that is utterly flawed and cannot live up to the “world-beating” expectations of it.

The new system is late and weakened from the start because the app is still not ready. Was it really essential for the NHS to go it alone on testing the new software, reportedly going well on its current test ground, the Isle of Wight? The NHS hardly has the most promising track record in delivering IT systems, and it is disappointing, if unsurprising, that the new testing website crashed on day one.

Nor can there be much confidence in the human factor, being delivered by the likes of Serco. There are far too many accounts of undertrained staff for comfort, and it looks as though the government has gone for the crudest of scripted call centre methods to limit the pandemic. Even if tests are undertaken promptly by those at risk, the turnaround is too slow to make them as useful as they should be.

Then there is the issue of public acceptance, and the “Cummings effect”. This is unknowable, but common sense – a double-edged weapon admittedly – and anecdotal evidence suggests that sections of the population are tiring of lockdown in any case, and those denied sick pay or childcare may have little choice but to defy the advice. People are even less inclined to heed worthy calls to civic duty from the likes of Matt Hancock, a figure who plainly thinks Mr Cummings did not “do the right thing” but cannot say so publicly, for obvious reasons. How grim it must be for Mr Hancock to have to stick up for a man, Mr Cummings that is, who would happily have him sacked.

The most problematic area remains the risk of a second wave of Covid cases overwhelming the NHS in a month or two. This was one of the key principles the government said would guide its exit from lockdown, and it will be interesting to see how far Sage supports this and what advice it has given.

This guidance should be published, but it is still the job of the politicians to balance science and economics and reach difficult decisions. No economy can afford to pay itself to do nothing forever, after all.

The rest of the nation is worried about the more purely political factors that could be polluting the policy-making process, and the cascade of announcements, hints and leaks about new treatments, relaxing the two-metre rule, testing, opening schools, shops, car showrooms and even pubs. The reports look a little too obviously helpful to a beleaguered No 10 this week.