A WINCHESTER father has criticised the Test and Trace system after his son and seven friends were diagnosed with coronavirus follow a trip to Crete.

Damian Stafford’s 18-year-old son returned from a holiday on the Greek island on August 25, taking a Wizz Air flight from Heraklion to Luton Airport on August 25.

Shortly after returning to the UK they were contacted by friends they had made on holiday from Estonia, who said they had tested positive upon their return home.

Mr Stafford, of Egbert Road, said: “In Estonia they have testing on arrival, they then contacted the boys and said we have tested positive you should probably have a test.

“In shared cars when through a drive-thru testing facility, this was on the Thursday and the Friday my son tested positive.

“We had isolated immediately even before he got his test results using the British common sense.”

Mr Stafford said that he and his eldest son have bought home tests to find out whether they have been infected, but have the family have had no contact from the Test and Trace system.

“All of this has been done using our own initiative, we’ve had absolutely no contact from Test and Trace.”

The system should have alerted the over 200 passengers on the flight, but The Guardian reported last week that authorities failed to alert the airline that the group had been diagnosed with coronavirus. It is understood that this has now been carried out.

“My main concern is that we are quite capable individuals and we know what the right thing to do is. This is surely happening to a lot of people that might not necessarily be confident in their own initiative and they wouldn’t think to isolate and they would be go about their business as usual,” Mr Stafford said.

“Boris Johnson said by June 1 we would have a world beating track and trace in place we still don’t have a system in place that works – we just need a system that works.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “NHS Test and Trace is working - we are testing over a million people every week and hundreds of thousands of people have been contacted who may have been unwittingly spreading the virus.

“There is a high demand for tests, but more appointments and home testing kits are available every day and we are increasing capacity to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October.

“Anyone with symptoms across the UK should get a test as soon as possible as well as washing hands regularly, wearing face coverings and following social distancing rules to stop the spread of the virus.”

A Wizz Air spokesperson said: "Wizz Air confirms it has made all passengers travelling on the 8168 flight from Heraklion to London Luton on 25 August aware of the situation, and immediately informed the relevant health authorities in England who are responsible for advising the passengers. Wizz Air operates all flights in compliance with local travel regulations, and the safety of passengers and staff is the number one priority.”