Contact Tracing Programme: Update

Health – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 3:00 pm on 7 July 2020.

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Photo of Andy Allen Andy Allen UUP 3:00, 7 July 2020

5. Mr Allen asked the Minister of Health for an update on the contact tracing programme. (AQO 539/17-22)

Photo of Robin Swann Robin Swann UUP

Contact tracing is the central tenet of the test, trace and protect strategy that I launched on 27 May 2020. It is an established method of identifying and breaking the chains of infection and clusters of communicable disease. While the Public Health Agency and our colleagues in environmental health are well versed in the use of such an approach, there is a clear difference in the operation required to help the management of COVID-19, both in the scale of the pandemic and the fact that it is an unknown disease. Contact tracing works by testing people potentially infected with the disease, speaking to them to advise on isolation, identifying their close contacts, who may be at risk of contracting the disease, and then speaking to those contacts to give guidance on isolation and what to do if symptoms develop. Contact tracing, in itself, will not eradicate COVID-19. It can only work as part of an overall strategy of testing, adherence and support for the advice to isolate, as well as maintaining measures such as hand hygiene and the appropriate social distancing.

On 27 April, the PHA began a pilot to test its capacity to respond, at scale, to the requirements for contact tracing during the pandemic. That involved tracing the contacts of a sample of cases who had tested positive. On 18 May, the agency began the transition to a programme of tracing contacts of all positive cases, and, on 25 May, that transition was completed. Northern Ireland was the first part of the United Kingdom to have that service operational. My Department is overseeing the scaling of the operation, which is likely to be required for the next two years until a vaccine is available and a mass vaccination programme is in place.

The service operates at a number of levels. There is a manual contact-tracing centre, where skilled clinical contact tracers will call all positive cases and their contacts to advise and guide on next steps. A cohort of public health consultants provide medical advice and clinical leadership to the centre, as well as dealing with complex cases and managing outbreaks or clusters of diseases. Other staff will be recruited to support the analysis of the information and intelligence gathered, in order to advise on the progression and management of the disease, along with administrative and managerial support for the centre. A call centre will provide Northern Ireland-centric advice on various aspects of checking symptoms, booking tests and providing signposts to sources of social and community support. There will be a suite of digital products that will support the progress of citizens who have the means and preference to work that way.

I can update the Member on the period from 25 May to 24 June. There have been 481 cases added to the contact-tracing database, and successful telephone encounters with the cases have resulted in 82% contacts, with 733 contacts identified.

Photo of Roy Beggs Roy Beggs UUP

I am conscious, Minister, that there was a lot of important information there. Answers should take two minutes, and you can request an additional minute, should you require it.

Photo of Andy Allen Andy Allen UUP

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive answer. Minister, you have outlined that contact tracing is one important resource at the disposal of your Department, alongside others that include the wider Executive guidance and regulations. Recently, we have seen examples of mass gatherings that are perceived to have exceeded the limits set out. Will the Minister outline whether he is confident that contact tracing will have the resources at its disposal, should an outbreak occur as a result of one of those mass gatherings?

Photo of Robin Swann Robin Swann UUP

We have 92 contact tracers in place who work over a seven-day week rotation. The more contacts and positive cases we have, the more pressure they come under. On average, each contact tracer can trace five contacts in a day. Any mass gathering that breaches the guidance or the regulations where we have the potential for a mass outbreak puts that contact tracing system under pressure. I ask everyone to follow the advice, guidance and regulations that are clearly laid out and supported by the Executive to prevent any further contact or spread of COVID-19 that could put our contact-tracing system under further pressure.