Local contact tracers, following up Covid-19 cases on the Isle of Wight, are not in place yet — as it is claimed there is less need for them.
When a person tests positive for Covid-19, contact tracers will alert anyone that person has been in contact with of the need to self-isolate — which is done at national base.
Dedicated teams for local areas
As demand crept up however, it was announced by government in August, the NHS Test and Trace programme will provide local authorities with a dedicated team of contact tracers for local areas.
This ensured those people the national team could not reach were found by local teams.
Success with local tracers
It was trialled in Blackburn with Darwen, where local tracers had a very successful rate of tracking down cases the national team was unable to find.
On the Isle of Wight, the council said it is in the process of setting up a local testing partnership, alongside the national service, but is not running yet.
Bryant: We will be setting it up
Director of public health for the Island, Simon Bryant, said that is because there has been a very good success rate through the national tracers who have followed up with a very high proportion of cases and contacts.
He said:
“What we need to do is look at that locally and see how we are going to develop that.
“Because we do very well through the national service, we wanted to make sure we were using our people and resources very effectively and so we will be setting it up.
“The need on the Island was less than Blackburn with Darwen.”
In some local authority areas, officers from other parts of the council – including environmental health, sexual health and in some cases fire services – have formed the local contact tracers.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may be been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: United Nations COVID-19 Response under CC BY 2.0
