The anonymous worker told the BBC that they had had a ‘few shocking exchanges’ and detailed ‘increasing frustration’ with the public’s ‘lack of co-operation.

While acknowledging criticism of the service may have been justified, the front line NHS nurse — who has been contacted tracing to earn extra money because their partner’s business had to close — said the negativity ‘simply enables people to justify their selfish behaviour.’

They explained: ‘When I asked one person to go through the questions with me, the answer was: “Oh I can’t just now – because I’m in Starbucks.” Now, this person has had a positive test and should be isolating. They’ve had a text telling them they are Covid-positive, yet they are still out in Starbucks infecting other people.

‘Some downright refuse to give details of their contacts. Others are unavailable because, despite their positive test result, they have gone to work.’

They continued: ‘One person I spoke to had tested positive after losing her sense of smell and taste, and she carried on going to work anyway, as she felt OK. She worked as a hairdresser… Let that sink in.

‘A middle-aged man who should have been isolating at home was out several times when I called. A young girl pretended, rather badly, to be him.’

Contact tracers phone people who have tested positive for Covid-19 or come into contact with those who have, in an effort to get people to self-isolate and stop the spread of the disease.

However, the service, run by Baroness Dido Harding, has been widely slammed for its performance, particularly over not reaching enough contacts and repeatedly ringing the same people. At different times during the pandemic, some staff were overworked while others faced hours of doing nothing.

But the contact tracer suggested people who refuse to engage with the service should also face criticism.

While singling out the behaviour of high-profile political figures Dominic Cummings, Margaret Ferrier and Stanley Johnson as possible reasons for poor public engagement, they detailed a series of abusive conversations which led them to question whether they wanted to continue being a nurse.

The contact tracer continued: ‘People seem so utterly selfish and entitled… I have, it’s true, spoken to a small number of lovely, helpful people but these have sadly been few and far between.

‘In all honesty, I have been shocked and disgusted by my experience.

‘I would say 70% of calls I have made go unanswered. It shocks and angers me that so many people just don’t care.’

A different contact tracer told the BBC that one woman contacted at 10.30am on a Sunday morning said she wanted compensation from the NHS for being called so early.

There have been calls for greater compensation for people told to self-isolate – much like in other European nations – since many cannot afford to be off work for long periods.

Metro.co.uk has contacted the Department of Health for comment.

A spokesperson told the BBC: ‘In five months we have built the largest diagnostics network in UK history from scratch, informing millions of people whether they have Covid-19 and whether they should self-isolate. More than 43 million tests have been carried out and more than three million people in England have been contacted and notified to self-isolate.

‘Turnaround times have been steadily improving over recent weeks and improvements to the contact tracing website, and to the process for contacting household members, have led to substantial improvements in the number of contacts reached.’