Contact-tracing volunteers catch up with COVID-19 backlog

Contact tracing remains central to Malta’s control strategy during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Volunteers and medical professionals are tracing back everyone who has been in close contact with a person infected by the virus, and keeping them under quarantine in case they develop symptoms.

One member of the contact-tracing team gave an insight on the contact-tracing process, and the hurdles they’ve found along the way.

“When a person registers positive for COVID-19, that person needs to make a list of every person they’ve been in contact with over the past two weeks. The list is then given to the police so they can carry out spot-checks.”

The list involves close contacts. If people have spent over 15 minutes with someone who tested positive, they will be added to the list and have to undergo quarantine for 14 days from the date of last contact.

If they live with someone who has been in close contact with a positive case, they also have to quarantine.

“Contact tracing can have negative implications on the household. If the persons living in the household have no alternative space to live in, every person has to quarantine. There are also issues where persons are living in the same household on negative terms – some may refuse to give the contacts of those they’re living with,” she said.

It is not uncommon for contacts to refuse to quarantine or give details on who they’ve been in contact with. In these situations, the contact-tracing team would threaten them with a €3,500 fine; but the contact might retaliate by threatening volunteers with legal action or verbal threats.

If the problem escalates, the case may be brought to the attention of higher authorities.

The volunteer noted that there were around 50 to 100 close contacts for every person who tested positive for COVID-19, creating a major backlog in contact tracing efforts.

“The backlog was difficult, but the contact-tracing team finally caught up with the backlog on 21 August. We’re a team of 50 volunteers, doctors, and medical students – but we haven’t grown much since the first wave of COVID-19 cases,” she remarked.

There are also certain technicalities that make contact-tracing challenging. “There was a situation where a family had just built a flat of apartments, where they were living with extended family in separate units, but the house number hadn’t been amended. In this case, everyone falling under that house number had to quarantine, despite living in separate units.”

While government directives are comprehensive, they are far from perfect. This has been a learning curve for everyone, but the government regularly updates their directives to adjust for various loopholes and technicalities.

However, there is yet to be a protocol in place in the event that someone from the contact-tracing team tests positive. “Would everyone have to be placed in quarantine? If so, who would carry out the contact-tracing? In such an uncertain situation as a global pandemic, trial and error is the only way to go forward – hopefully this won’t prove to be critical error,” the volunteer said.