The Government is on track to meet its target of recruiting 18,000 coronavirus contact tracers by mid-May, with 17,000 already hired, Michael Gove has said.
Mr Gove praised "energetic and determined" Health Secretary Matt Hancock for keeping the UK in line to meet the target.
“It is now the case that more than 17,000 people have been recruited for contact tracing, so we are on course to meet that target," senior Cabinet minister Michael Gove told Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.
"It's more evidence that we have in Matt an energetic and determined health secretary who's throwing everything into the fight against coronavirus," he added.
Contact tracing is a key part of the UK's response to coronavirus. The Government hopes that it can begin lifting the lockdown safely by working out who infected people have been in contact with.
The UK is also trialling an app to work alongside the human contact tracers.
Rigorous contact tracing has been a core part of the response to the crisis by countries that have managed to keep coronavirus cases and deaths relatively low, like South Korea.
The UK stopped contact tracing in mid-March as the virus was spreading out of control in the country.
Downing Street was forced to correct comments by Northern Ireland minister Brandon Lewis on Saturday, after he mistakenly told Sky that only 1,500 contact tracers had been hired so far.
A Government spokesman told reporters that the figure was "significantly higher".
