Northern Ireland

Success of contact tracing system essential to preventing spread of Covid-19

Northern Ireland's enhanced contact tracing plan, which operates seven days a week, has been rolled out since Mid-May and was the first in the UK to do so.
Northern Ireland's enhanced contact tracing plan, which operates seven days a week, has been rolled out since Mid-May and was the first in the UK to do so. Northern Ireland's enhanced contact tracing plan, which operates seven days a week, has been rolled out since Mid-May and was the first in the UK to do so.

TRACKING down contacts of people infected by coronavirus is seen as key to suppressing the pandemic and getting out of lockdown.

Countries like Germany – which is considered by many experts to have led the way and has a much lower death toll than the UK – were doing 50,000 tests a day at the beginning of the outbreak as well as widespread tracing through identifying and telephoning contacts of students who tested positive after returning from Italian ski trips.

In Northern Ireland, a new “enhanced” contract tracing programme was rolled out just over a fortnight ago and is using a phone system as opposed to an app.

Almost 100 staff drawn from the Public Health Agency and other health-related roles have been manning the system, though it is estimated that hundreds more will be needed.

It works by first asking anyone over the age of five who develops Covid-19 symptoms to book a test without delay.

Those testing positive will be telephoned and asked to list all those they have recently had direct contact with or been within two metres of for more than 15 minutes.

These people will then be contacted and asked, depending on when they last came into contact with the person, to self-isolate for 14 days – even if they do not have symptoms.

Health Minister Robin Swann last night said it will be a major long-term programme.

“We will be scaling up the current contact tracing provision to include teams recruited directly to staff the operation,” he said.

“This will include professionals such as nurses and environmental health officers for contact tracing with lead clinicians and health protection consultants advising on complex situations and local clusters or outbreaks.

“The work will be supported through the deployment of trained volunteers when required.

“There will also be a call centre element to this service which will be able to provide general information to symptomatic individuals and their contacts on a range of Covid-19 issues.

“Digital tools will also be developed to complement the telephone-based contact tracing.

“Options are under active consideration.”

Mr Swann said anyone with a new, continuous cough, a high temperature or a change in their sense of smell or taste is asked to immediately report the symptoms and book a test at nhs.uk/coronavirus or by ringing 119.

Tests can be carried out at drive-through test centres in Belfast, Derry, Craigavon or Enniskillen, or by using a postal self-test kit.

The executive’s most recent figures, from May 19-25, state that 212 cases had been contact-traced in Northern Ireland – an average of 30 per day.

Each was phoned and a total of 216 contacts were traced.

Mr Swann previously told The Irish News that they had “not abandoned the idea of a phone app” – there have been privacy issues as well as concerns about software compatibility north and south of the border – but for the moment were concentrating on telephone follow-ups.

A contract-tracing app currently being piloted on the Isle of Wight has been beset with technical problems.