[ad_1]
In an early sign that Covid-19 public restrictions may be working, the HSE has seen a sharp drop in the average number of close contacts of infected people in recent days.
HSE data, obtained by The Irish Times, shows that the average number of contacts who have reported a positive case after testing positive has fallen to an average of three out of five last week and six earlier this month. .
The decline in the number of close contacts of newly infected cases, while a tentative sign, shows the possible impact of public restrictions, which intensified this week, on the transmission of the disease.
Reducing close contacts will help ease pressure on the state’s contact tracing operation.
The Irish Times reported Tuesday that HSE contact tracing was overwhelmed last weekend by a spike in cases. This forced the trackers to skip calls to close contacts for approximately 2,000 Covid-19 cases to avoid multi-day delays in calling new daily cases this week for their contacts.
Texts
Instead of tracing the contacts for these 2,000 cases, the HSE sent them text messages on Wednesday asking them to do their own contact tracing.
Since then, it has emerged that some close contacts of positive cases who were not called by the contact trackers due to the delay have since tested positive and expressed their anger at the contact trackers who called them.
Some newly infected people were said to be “very upset” at not being called as close contacts of last weekend’s cases when they were contacted as part of this week’s new cases.
There is anger and frustration within the contact tracing operation over the reputational damage caused by the decision, leading to more difficult calls for contact trackers trying to convince people to test and isolate themselves. .
“‘The collateral damage from that decision is just terrible,” said a source.
Questions have been raised internally regarding the decision to text and not call complex new cases that may not be able to do their own contact tracing. These cases can be sick people or foreigners who work in meat plants or who live in direct provision centers, or people who have been to parties or family celebrations.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) reported seven other Covid-19-related deaths and another 777 confirmed cases in the state on Friday.
Five day average
The five-day average of new cases fell for the second day in a row for the first time in weeks.
One of the main labs used to process Covid-19 tests has said that it will not be able to operate this weekend and next due to an “inevitable staff shortage” resulting from a small number of coronavirus cases among staff at the laboratory. Enfer, the private testing laboratory in Naas, Co Kildare, will cover the shortfall in testing.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue said late Friday that his department should have issued a public notice about the problems with Virapro hand sanitizer a week ago when a formal notice was issued to the manufacturer. One part was found to contain methanol and not 70 percent of the required level of ethanol. Schools were only alerted to the withdrawal late Thursday night and some were forced to close on Friday.
[ad_2]