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In the last two weeks, when there has been a significant increase in the incidence of coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the number of people who have been in contact or, in general, in contact with those infected has been increasing. In order to inform these people as quickly as possible, how to behave as soon as possible, how long to isolate, the National Public Health Center (NVSC) sends short SMS messages to exposed people from today.
This means that from now on high-risk contact persons will no longer receive a specialist call. Instead, you will receive an instant SMS message over the phone, telling you when the person needs to be isolated, as well as information about the possibility of shortening the isolation.
In addition, people with high risk exposures will also find a link to a questionnaire in the SMS, which they will provide with relevant data to professionals. For their part, the person must indicate in the questionnaire if they are obliged to be unable to work during the period of isolation, if they agree to be tested for COVID-19 and if they have the appropriate conditions for isolation.
According to Robertas Petraitis, Director of NVSC, the system in place will ensure a more efficient process of informing people, ensuring that people receive clear and accurate information on what to do after a high-risk exposure much faster than before.
“We now identify an average of 4,000 people in contact per day that professionals need to communicate with during a few or several minutes of conversation. As the number of cases increases, we are unable to do so by calling. As a result, we will inform in another way: people will receive short SMS messages. We invite people to follow these messages, to comply with the established requirements, to provide the requested data to NVSC specialists, ”says R. Petraitis.
These short SMS messages will be sent from the NVSC, so in the sender field, people will see the abbreviation, not the NVSC, instead of the number.
It is important that people identified as high risk in epidemiological studies receive such SMS from NVSC and that people with confirmed COVID-19 disease provide them to case investigators.
At that time, people who suspect they may have had contact should complete a questionnaire on the NVSC website and wait for a call from specialists who will conduct an individual risk assessment.
Information from the National Center for Public Health
