Up to 135 people could be used in contact tracing efforts in the South as New Zealand heads into what could be the second half of a "marathon" lockdown.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today called border controls, rigorous testing and contact tracing the "three pillars" needed to achieve the goals of Covid-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions — "to win this marathon" -- eliminating the novel coronavirus from the country.
A Southern District Health Board spokeswoman today, in response to Otago Daily Times questions, confirmed there were 100 staff from Public Health South, the wider SDHB and external agencies, such as local councils, chasing contacts of known Covid-19 cases at present.
Another 35 staff were available if the need to increase contact tracing arose.
Police had not yet been used to find people contact tracers could not contact on their own — but that option was available.
The spokeswoman did not say how many people could be traced in one day.
"The lab notifies our Medical Officers of Health with the results of any testing. Any positive cases are assigned to a Case Manager, who makes contact with the case and gathers information, including a list of people that the case has been in contact with," she said.
"The list of people is passed on to a Contact Trace Lead, who assigns groups of close contacts to each of the contact tracers in their team. The contact tracers call each individual and, if they are deemed a close contact, then a 14 day follow-up begins.
"The follow-up either entails the contact completing a daily online survey, or alternatively people are able to receive a daily phone call from our contact tracers to check in with them. The daily communication with cases and contacts enables us to monitor symptoms and ensure testing, or medical assessments, are done as needed."
