Barwon Health COVID tracers showing state how it’s done
Barwon Health’s contact tracing efforts have been lauded as Victoria’s contact tracing system comes under increasing scrutiny.
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Barwon Health’s contact tracing efforts have been lauded as Victoria’s contact tracing system comes under increasing scrutiny.
It has been revealed Barwon Health has identified thousands of close contacts in recent weeks.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ deputy secretary for community engagement and testing, Jeroen Weimar, praised the work of Barwon Health, pointing to their work containing the latest Colac outbreak.
The state government announced the establishment of the local contact tracing team at Barwon Health in July.
Since it was established on July 17, the team has tracked and traced 429 cases, about 2400 household close contacts and more than 3000 workplace and school contacts.
Barwon Health infectious diseases specialist Dan O’Brien said the contact tracing team, which focuses on the Barwon southwest region, included 12-15 people each day, from a pool of about 50 staff members.
“This includes nurses, allied health staff and infectious disease doctors, as well as data and administration staff,” Associate Professor O’Brien said
“We also have a monitoring team in place to provide ongoing support to confirmed cases and close contacts for their quarantine period.
“Our process begins as soon as a case is notified, usually taking a maximum of six to eight hours to complete the interview, with the positive case and the identification and notification of all their potential contacts.
“Where there is a large outbreak in a workplace, it can take a number of days to determine all of the close contacts.”
Mr Weimar said the dedicated regional teams had been “a strong part” of the coronavirus response in Victoria.
The state government on Tuesday announced it would establish new localised contact tracing teams across metropolitan Melbourne, mirroring the dedicated teams in regional Victoria.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt claims the second coronavirus wave “could largely have been avoided” if Victoria’s contact tracing system had been better.
Scott Morrison this week dubbed New South Wales’ contact tracing as “gold standard”.
“New South Wales has a stronger capability when it comes to tracing,” the Prime Minister said.
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Mr Morrison also reaffirmed the federal government’s offer of more support to bolster Victoria’s contact tracing system.
But Premier Daniel Andrews said Victoria’s contact tracing team — which now numbers about 2600 — was hitting its targets.
Mr Andrews said a team of experts who had been active in Victoria would be sent to Sydney to “double and triple check” how each of the states were responding to outbreaks and contract tracing.
However Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the move to compare the Victorian system with interstate systems was too little too late.
“Why has it taken six months to realise he needs to go up to New South Wales and see how things are done properly?” Mr O’Brien said.
Originally published as Barwon Health COVID tracers showing state how it’s done