Six months ago Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a world-beating test-and-trace system to keep coronavirus at bay. Now, a BBC investigation finds the network failing in places with some of the worst infections rates,  with just half of close contacts being reached in some areas. We have spoken to key government figures, scientists and health officials who were involved from the start to establish what went wrong with the system - and, crucially, whether it can be fixed to keep the virus in check until vaccines come to the rescue. Our investigation finds the system serving England still undermined by the legacy of decisions made at the outset.

The findings also suggest:
 

• No-one from NHS labs was at a key government meeting on 17 March - before lockdown - with private firms about testing
• Private contractors overpromised on what they could do, with one saying it would build 200 testing machines that hadn't, at the time, even made it to prototype
• A move to more local contact tracing by councils was undermined by IT problems, leading to a reliance on spreadsheets and delays getting contact details

Critics say ministers bypassed existing testing infrastructure and expertise at hospitals, universities and Public Health England, in favour of privately run mega-labs. There are similar criticisms over the way contact tracing was initially set up. However, the government argues the system is "undoubtedly" curbing Covid's spread. And Baroness Dido Harding, who was recruited to head up NHS Test and Trace once the model was in place, says the system will continue to improve. "You can't expect test-and-trace on its own to keep on top of the virus - it is just one part of a wider approach," she adds.

Millions of public sector workers face a pay freeze at next week's Spending Review, as Chancellor Rishi Sunak looks to reflect a fall in private sector earnings. Some 5.5 million public sector staff - including many military, police, teaching and civil service key workers - could be affected, although NHS workers are likely to be exempted. In July, almost 900,000 public sector workers - including doctors and teachers - were given an above-inflation pay rise because of their "vital contribution" during the pandemic. But there were complaints that many workers missed out. And Dave Prentis, of the union Unison, says any pay freeze will be "a cruel body blow to other health, care and public service employees working tirelessly to get us through the pandemic".

US President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia has been confirmed by a recount, with the Democrat beating his rival by 12,284 votes. Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says the hand-audit "reaffirmed that the state's new secure paper ballot voting system accurately counted and reported results". Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis insists the state just recounted illegal ballots but the Republican in charge of Georgia's voting system says the state has proved claims that polling machines "somehow flipped votes" to be untrue. With Mr Trump refusing to concede, despite courts in Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania rejecting legal challenges, Mr Biden says the president's actions send "incredibly damaging messages... about how democracy functions".

The i says the UK is preparing to carry out the first vaccinations against Covid-19 in the next two weeks, as pharmaceutical company Pfizer seeks clearance for a roll-out of its vaccine. The health secretary is expected to outline plans on Friday, the newspaper adds. The Sun says up to one million people a day are to get jabs, with the NHS expected to recruit more than 40,000 extra workers. Forty mass vaccination centres will be set up across England, according to the Daily Express. "New jab joy," is the Daily Star's headline, summing up positive findings from the Oxford vaccine trials - the third to emerge in recent weeks. "Typical," it jokes. "You wait all year for a corona vaccine and then three come along at the same time." Read the review.

It's Friday, which means its time to test your knowledge of the headlines in our quiz of the week's news. And we have the story of how when actors Brendan O'Rourke and Kevin Mains created the sci-fi skit Star Force during lockdown, they ended up getting Hollywood big names including James McAvoy on board. 
 

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