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Test and Trace reached 60.4% of contacts of people who tested positive for coronavirus in the week ending 4 November, latest figures show.
This is slightly up on the
previous week's figure
of 59.9%, making it one of the lowest rates since the scheme began.
Figures also show that 149,253 people tested positive for coronavirus at least once in England in the same week - the highest weekly number since the system was launched in May, and an 8% increase on the previous week.
However, of the 141,804 people referred to Test and Trace in that week, 85% were reached and asked to provide a list of recent close contacts - the highest weekly percentage since it began, and up slightly on the week before.
Some 13.2% of people who had been transferred to the scheme were unable to be contacted, while 1.9% did not provide any communication details.
Where cases were managed by local health teams in England, 99.1% of contacts were able to be reached and told to self-isolate in that week, while cases managed online or by call centres saw a rate of just 59%.
37.6% of people who were tested in England at a regional, local or mobile site got their result within 24 hours - up slightly from 26.4% in the previous week, however this is some way off the target set in June that all those doing in-person tests should get their results within 24 hours.
Of those who used a home test kit, 4.5% of people had their result within 24 hours, up slightly from 3.5% the previous week. 57.7% of home kit users had results within 48 hours, however.
On Wednesday, the UK recorded a
further 595 coronavirus-related deaths
, bringing the country's total to 50,365. Another 22,950 people tested positive, according to government figures.
Thursday marks a week in to England's month-long lockdown, with non-essential businesses, restaurants, bars and gyms all closed, in an effort to slow the rise in COVID-19 infections.
Analysis: Test and Trace system still not up to scratch - but inside the data there's a glimmer of good news about the overall COVID picture
By Rowland Manthorpe, technology correspondent
*In the last week before lockdown, contact tracers in England reached six in 10 contacts of people. Or, in other words, they failed to reach four in 10. *
This would matter less if Test and Trace was lightning fast, but it isn't. Only 30% of tests from local test sites were returned within 24 hours - for a service where every hour matters, that isn't going to be good enough to suppress the virus.
*One glimmer of good news. This week, for the first time in many weeks, there was a fall in the number of people identified as coming into close contact with someone who had tested positive. This 4% decrease might mean that people weren't telling Test and Trace about their contacts, something senior government advisors have warned is happening. *
But it could mean that people were restricting their movements in advance of the lockdown - something that would fit with other data suggesting infections were stabilising or perhaps even falling before England went into lockdown, just as they did before the first lockdown in March.
None of this would necessarily change the decision: that was dictated by the number of patients in hospital, which has continued to rise steadily for some weeks. But it could mean this lockdown stands a better chance of working in time for the government's 2 December deadline.
