Contact tracing in Lanarkshire Health board trials project to beat virus
NHS Lanarkshire is one of three health boards in Scotland to start testing tracing technology this week in a bid to “protect others” and halt the spread of coronavirus.
Contact tracing testing by the health board began on Monday as well as in NHS Fife and NHS Highland.
When cases of COVID-19 infection are discovered, contact tracing will quickly identify people that those testing positive for the virus have been in close contact with.
Those people will then be asked to self-isolate for 14 days to help reduce the spread of the disease.
The testing trial is the first step in moving towards an extended test, trace, isolate and support (TTIS) approach which will be used to keep transmission in communities low as Scotland moves out of lockdown.
Initially, around 20 NHS Lanarkshire staff members will be involved in the tracing testing, but that number is expected to increase in due course.
Up to 2000 additional staff members are being recruited by NHS Scotland with more than 600 already in place.
Outlining the Scottish Government’s contact tracing strategy earlier this month, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “We will ask and support those close contacts to self-isolate, so that if they do develop the disease, there is less risk that they will pass it on to others. And we will make sure that support is available to enable people to isolate effectively.
“However, it is important to stress that ‘test, trace, isolate, support’ will be most effective when levels of infection are low, and that its success relies on all of us knowing and agreeing what to do if we have symptoms.
“This will not be easy. In this next phase, we will be asking people to self-isolate, not for their own benefit, and not because we know for certain that they have contracted the disease, but in order to protect others in case they have.”
The pilot is expected to last two weeks and will allow NHS Lanarkshire and the other two health boards to test out the software which contact tracers will use to collect the information that they need digitally.
Dr Femi Oshin, consultant in public health medicine, NHS Lanarkshire, said: “Contact tracing in Lanarkshire will be undertaken in a phased approach.
“Over the coming weeks, we will be expanding the team of staff undertaking contact tracing, with some staff in NHS Lanarkshire facilities and others working remotely.”
It’s expected that the Scottish Government will outline a route-map this week as a means of the country navigating its way as safely as possible out of lockdown.
Scottish Government Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, said: “The software we are developing in Scotland is built on a tried and trusted platform and will allow us to carry out contact tracing on a much larger scale than has been necessary until now.
“It will also focus on supporting public health teams, identify outbreaks and reduce transmission in high risk groups and settings by making it easier for staff to collect and record information.
“The test, trace, isolate and support approach is about breaking the chain of transmission of the virus.”