Once considered the gold standard of contact tracing, problems are emerging with New South Wales systems as Covid cases continue growing despite the Sydney lockdown.
NSW has previously relied on its contact tracing team to keep ahead of the spread by notifying close and casual contacts, so they could isolate and limit the spread. The same strategy has been tested this time with the more contagious Delta variant leading to a rapidly growing list of exposure sites.
Each day, the state records a high number of cases still under investigation. Of the 344 new cases reported Wednesday, the source of infection of 229 were under investigation.
When new daily cases surpassed 200, the NSW chief health officer, Kerry Chant, said it would take some time for contact tracers to get to everyone, given the large number.
“Our priority is contacting people, making sure they are aware they are a case and getting their contacts in for testing because that is the critical public health action we need to take. We then assess their risk factors and do the other data item collections,” she said.
There are reports of delays of more than a week in some people finding out officially they are a close contact of a confirmed case, while NSW Health has begun urging people to check its website for casual contact sites, rather than sending out a daily list as it became too long.
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