Coronavirus Victoria: Claims state’s tracing team half the size of NSW
Despite having almost 28 times the number of active virus cases, Victoria’s contact tracing team is reportedly half the size of NSW’s.
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Victoria’s coronavirus contact tracing team is reportedly about half the size of NSW despite having almost 28 times the number of active cases.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also revealed he was concerned about the state’s level of contact tracing throughout the pandemic.
When asked by 3AW’s Neil Mitchell if the system was failing, Mr Morrison said the federal government had “been doing a lot of work to improve the information systems together with the Victorian government”.
“It’s one thing to have the people available but you’ve got to have the systems to support them,” the Prime Minister said.
“When Commodore (Mark) Hill was made available through the ADF to lead our effort in Victoria so much of his early work has been about the information systems … supporting the Victorian medical team to be organising how they’re getting their tracing done.”
Nine News has revealed Victoria is believed to have a team of about 150 people on the phones searching for close contacts while NSW has about 300.
The State Government told the broadcaster it had a tracing team of about 2600 but refused to say how many were actually making calls.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday there were 3669 “mystery cases” in Victoria where authorities had no idea how the patients contracted the virus.
Despite having 30 times the number of cases of NSW, it's been revealed Victoria only has half the number of contact tracers - and many say the system is broken. @jekearsley #AusPol #9News pic.twitter.com/fbXfbRT7uS
— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) August 18, 2020
Victoria’s contact tracing team has struggled to cope with surging cases during the state’s second wave, which has led to long delays in contacting some positive cases and their close contacts, with some people thought to be close contacts not contacted at all.
In early July more than 200 Ambulance Victoria staff made up of third-year student paramedics and graduates were deployed to help bolster the contact tracing team, with Mr Andrews telling reporters “every government agency” would be helping Department of Health and Human Services in some way.
At least 28 teams of Australian Defence Force personnel and DHHS authorised officers have also been deployed to doorknock every positive case since the start of August to ensure people are isolating and provide them support.
As of Tuesday, Victoria had 7274 active cases and NSW 261.
Mr Andrews said mystery cases had jumped 43 since Monday and urged Victorians to keep coming forward and getting tested.
But the state’s chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton predicted Victoria’s daily numbers of new infections would drop next week and forecast cases to be in the 100s.
Originally published as Coronavirus Victoria: Claims state’s tracing team half the size of NSW