Canada is training more people to help track coronavirus cases.
Canada is calling for more people to help investigate coronavirus cases. 2:33
Behind every known case of COVID-19 is a public health investigator working meticulously to figure out its origin and track its spread. Known as contact tracers, these specially trained sleuths make up the crucial intelligence arm of the battle to contain the virus.
But are there enough of them?
With more than 14,000 known coronavirus cases in Canada, some public health departments are concerned the workload could become too much. And in the search for ways to find and train more individuals to do the work, some are looking to Alberta.
There are now 70 contact tracers working at any given time in the province — a six-fold increase to the usual staff, who in normal times track the spread of other diseases, such as measles.
Working in call centre-style offices and spaced apart by the two metres advised by health authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the new recruits include medical students from the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta.
While contact tracing is usually done by public health nurses, medical students have similar clinical experience, making them easy to train. In the past few weeks, more than 300 new staff have been taught the basics on how to work the phones by Richelle Schindler of Alberta Health Services.
Contact tracing is “one of the best ways to contain this virus,” she says.
“South Korea, Japan, Singapore — they’ve all been able to contain the spread of this virus through aggressive contact tracing.”
Indeed Singapore, which has been lauded for its COVID-19 containment efforts, has teams of conta