Over recent months, we’ve seen numerous examples of failures with Victoria’s contact tracing system (see here, here and here).
Thankfully, the Victorian Government appears to be taking the issue seriously, rallying a reserve workforce of hundreds of contact tracers to stamp out any future virus flare-ups:
The head of the state’s contact tracing team, Professor Euan Wallace, believes that the new system will be able to cope with at least 2000 daily coronavirus cases a day if needed.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Tuesday that he thought the state’s case contact and outbreak management was “the best in Australia” and could be scaled up to meet resurging cases if needed.
But GPs who have witnessed failings in the health department’s management of coronavirus outbreaks, including long delays in contact tracing, remain dubious about the capacity for significant reform…
Terry Slevin, head of the Public Health Association of Australia, said while it was clear that Victoria’s contact tracing system had been improved, it was simply not possible to expect Victorian authorities to establish a system within months to the standard of that in NSW, which had evolved over decades.
Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, has also praised Victoria’s contact tracing system:
Dr Alan Finkel, who was called in to advise the Department of Health and Human Services in early August, said there had been “enormous progress” since then.
He nominated enhanced training of contact tracers and the shift from paper forms to a digital end-to-end system as key improvements, and said Victoria was now meeting his 48-hour target from testing to notifying close contacts.
“I can say with great confidence that the resources and personnel being applied to that task are really substantial,” Dr Finkel said.
“The focus on improving the end-to-end process so that cases don’t get lost in the system, so that everyone gets followed up with minimal confusion as efficiently as possible — I’d say the effort being applied is enormous.”
Let’s hope Brett Sutton and Alan Finkel are right and Victoria’s contact tracing system is now up the par. Because it is the only thing standing in the way of a virus third wave; at least until Victoria’s hotel quarantine system for overseas arrivals re-starts.
The Victorian Government simply must get both the contract tracing and hotel quarantine systems right. Otherwise, we risk a virus third wave, isolation from the rest of the nation, and more destructive lockdowns.
The Victorian Government cannot repeat the same mistakes.
