Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the average (a) time to trace a contact of a person infected with monkeypox in the UK and (b) proportion of contacts of people infected with monkeypox in the UK traced, since 4 May 2022.

No specific estimate has been made. All known contacts are being informed by the UK Health Security Agency’s local health protection teams and hospital infection prevention and control teams. Contacts are categorised by tracing teams following a verbal assessment based on the level of contact with an infected individual and the likelihood a contact may have contracted the infection.

The maximum isolation period for the highest category of contact is 21 days from the date of interaction with a person infected with monkeypox. However, isolation advice is given on a case-by-case basis depending on the specific exposure circumstances of an individual, which will differ among different contacts.