Alberta Well being Companies is now in a position to examine each COVID-19 case, an enchancment after the contact-tracing system within the province collapsed on the finish of final yr.
As of Jan. 29, AHS mentioned it had greater than 2,000 contact tracers and has the power to hint roughly 1,200 instances on daily basis.
“At the moment, AHS is ready to contact and examine all COVID-19 instances we obtain every day,” mentioned AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson.
“People who’ve examined constructive for COVID-19 are not being requested to inform their shut contacts themselves of the publicity.”
As each day case counts had been surging in November, AHS switched to solely tracing instances in high-priority settings, comparable to persevering with care services, healthcare services and colleges; different constructive instances had been left to do their very own tracing.
The province additionally stopped tracing constructive instances the place who had already spent 10 days in isolation, because it targeted on the latest instances first.
READ MORE: Alberta provides about 800 new COVID-19 instances in 24 hours, modifications coming to contact tracing
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On Jan. 12, Chief Medical Officer of Well being Dr. Deena Hinshaw mentioned they had been in a position to attain out to those high-priority instances inside 24 hours. On the time, Hinshaw mentioned there wasn’t an actual date of when all new instances may very well be reached inside 24 hours however she mentioned that was the objective.
READ MORE: Alberta’s contact tracing enhancing as 652 new COVID-19 instances recognized, 38 extra deaths
Williamson mentioned the advance was due partly to decrease case counts within the province in addition to recruitment efforts for contact tracers and the implementation of textual content and electronic mail notifications.
AHS mentioned it had 50 contact tracers earlier than the coronavirus pandemic started. Extra folks had been employed within the spring and by July, there have been roughly 300 contact tracers.
READ MORE: Alberta goals to have 1,600 contact tracers by finish of 2020 as COVID-19 instances surge
As of late October, AHS mentioned there have been near 800 contact tracers and it was within the means of hiring roughly 380 employees to convey the full quantity to greater than 1,100.
AHS is continuous to rent and practice extra contact tracers, with roughly 500 folks finishing orientation close to the tip of January.
Williamson mentioned shut contacts of instances in colleges are notified inside 24 hours of AHS receiving the listing of shut contacts from colleges.
The method of contact tracing entails phoning a constructive case, figuring out shut contacts and following up with these people within the hopes of limiting additional transmission.
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