Victoria’s contact tracing team failing to touch base with one in 10 people who test positive
The state’s troubled contact tracing system is still failing to meet nationally agreed standards, with new data revealing just how many COVID-positive Victorians are waiting too long.
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One in 10 Victorians confirmed to have coronavirus over the past week were not contact traced within 24 hours of returning a positive result.
Data obtained by the Herald Sun revealed while there had been improvements in the state’s virus response, Victoria was still failing against nationally agreed standards.
It also showed last week 10 Victorians who were close contacts of a confirmed COVID-19 case were not told within 48 hours.
More than 1000 locally acquired cases were under investigation last week. While that was deemed still too high by national standards, it was down significantly from 1811 the week before.
Ten per cent of confirmed COVID-19 positive patients in Victoria were still waiting for a contact tracing interview 24 hours after diagnosis last week, despite significant assistance from the ADF and other states.
In NSW over the same period there were no cases awaiting an interview after a day.
Daniel Andrews on Sunday said Victoria’s contact tracing team was at its biggest.
“Cases are being conducted within 24 hours of DHHS being notified of the positive result,” the Premier said.
“We’ve got about a two-hour period that elapses between when a person is told they are positive and when we are told they are positive. There’s no queue there.
“We will then begin that very challenging work of making contact with those people (and) conducting a detailed interview.”
Earlier this month the Herald Sun revealed reluctance by Victoria’s health authorities to share data with other states forced the federal government to intervene.
In the weeks before Melbourne’s second lockdown, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton was tight-lipped about delays in contact tracing and notification of positive cases.
Concerns caused the creation of a shared data scheme at the July 24 National Cabinet meeting when states and territories agreed on transparency with data on contact tracing, tracking and other metrics, to ensure system capacity.
It is believed Scott Morrison had been particularly concerned about the delays in contract tracing and had pushed other leaders to comply.
Despite the failings, Labor leader Anthony Albanese on Sunday claimed Victoria’s contact tracing processes were as good as those in NSW.
“The numbers for Victoria as a proportion are about the same as NSW,” Mr Albanese said on testing rates.
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