5/13/2020 1 COVID-19 Series Contact Tracing Under Alert Level 2 – Your staff, customers & suppliers Presented By: Paul Jarvie Manager - Industrial Relations & Safety EMA Contact Tracing: Definition • In public health, contact tracing is the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further information about these contacts. • By tracing the contacts of infected individuals, testing them for infection, treating the infected and tracing their contacts in turn, public health aims to reduce infections in the population. Contact tracing has been a pillar of communicable disease control in public health for decades.
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COVID-19 Series
Contact Tracing Under Alert Level 2 – Your staff, customers & suppliers
• In public health, contact tracing is the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further information about these contacts.
• By tracing the contacts of infected individuals, testing them for infection, treating the infected and tracing their contacts in turn, public health aims to reduce infections in the population.
Contact tracing has been a pillar of communicable disease control in public health for decades.
• To interrupt ongoing transmission and reduce spread of an infection
• To alert contacts to the possibility of infection and offer preventive counseling or preventative care
• To offer diagnosis, counseling and treatment to already infected individuals
• If the infection is treatable, to help prevent reinfection of the originally infected patient
• To learn about the epidemiology of a disease in a particular population
Public Health Definitions
• Control: The reduction of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity or mortality to a locally acceptable level…...
• Elimination of disease/infection: Reduction to zero of the incidence of a specified disease in a defined geographical area
• Eradication: Permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection caused by a specific agent as a result of deliberate efforts; intervention measures are no longer needed. Example: smallpox.
• Extinction: The specific infectious agent no longer exists in nature or in the laboratory. Example: none.
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Who needs to keep contact racing records?
• Contact tracing records are required if you are a:
• Bar, restaurant, café or nightclub
• A public venue (e.g. a swimming pool, cinema, museum, library)
• A public gathering (including sporting events)
• In all other situations, contact tracing records are encouraged, but not required.
• If you can maintain contact tracing records, your environment is considered to be controlled, and the 1 metre separation distance applies.
• If you cannot maintain contact tracing records, then your environment is considered to be uncontrolled, and the 2 metre separation distance applies.
We recommend all businesses maintain contact tracing records if they can, particularly if you have a close proximity working environment This means keeping a register of:
◦ All people, both workers, visitors, entering or leaving the workplace
◦ All people that workers have contact with while conducting their work, including customers where this is practicable
What information do you need to collect?
• At a minimum, you should collect the following information:
• Date of contact (and time if practicable).
• Full name (not nickname)
• Contact telephone number
• Physical address.
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You should consider:
How you’ll make sure the register is being used and maintained correctly, and observing privacy
Where the register will be located and who is best to make the entries
Whether you divide your workplace into zones and limit movement between the zones
Whether you’ll supervise visitors who aren’t at your site regularly
Asking your workers to keep a personal record of places they have been and the names of people they have been in contact with.
Avoid use of shared pens and paper.
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What is close contact?
• ‘Close contact’ is defined as any person with the following exposure to a suspect,
confirmed or probable case during the case’s infectious period, without appropriate
personal protective equipment (PPE):
• Direct contact with the body fluids or the laboratory specimens of a case
• Presence in the same room in a health care setting when an aerosol-generating
procedure is undertaken on a case
• Living in the same household or household-like setting (e.g. shared section of in a
hostel) with a case
• Face-to-face contact in any setting within two meters of a case for 15 minutes or more
• Having been in a closed environment (e.g., a classroom, hospital waiting room, or
conveyance other than aircraft) within 2 meters of a case for 15 minutes or more
• Having been seated on an aircraft within 2 meters of a case (for economy class this
would mean 2 seats in any direction including seats across the aisle, other classes would
