Up to 8,000 contact tracers are to be axed by Test and Trace because there are too few coronavirus cases being transferred to the system.
The cut was revealed in a leaked internal email sent to the 22,000-strong workforce, which said the service needed to de-escalate from its winter high.
Emma Moore, a senior T&T boss, told employees in a message seen by the Health Services Journal they expected to slash staffing levels to those it maintained last summer, when infection rates were very low.
She said: 'We need to reduce our capacity while retaining the right skills and our ability to ramp up again to ensure we are able to respond to any potential future demand.'