AQW 9086/17-22

Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 20/10/2020
Answered On Date: 30/10/2020
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health what reforms will be made to the Contact Tracing system over the next four weeks to ensure it provides improved evidence, notifies people faster and is fit for purpose to ensure we have targeted interventions enabling us to avoid future lockdowns.

Answer:

My Department and the Public Health Agency are continually reviewing the operation of the Contact Tracing Service using lessons learned to date to help improve overall efficiency.

For example, in the immediate future there will continue to be a focus on recruitment to help ensure the Service has an appropriate skills mix and a continuing focus on improvements to the operation of the existing delivery model.

This approach will build on the recently launched online self-service contact tracing platform and on the automated text alert service, both of which facilitate more efficient notification to those that are required to self-isolate, and in turn free up time for the manual contact tracing service to deal with cases.