Questions about the ability of the NSW contact tracing system to cope

A Sydney woman has been told she is a close contact of Campsie Shopping Centre, four days after NSW Health identified the site as an exposure location.

The out-of-control outbreak in Campsie began with a single worker at the center’s Tong Li supermarket, who tested positive for COVID-19 on July 19.

But while other Tong Li workers were instructed by contact tracers to get tested immediately, customers at the supermarket and nearby shops were left in the dark.

Justin Leach, who is currently in isolation with his wife, who was shopping at Tong Li when the employee worked there while contagious, said the information was already circulating on social media long before contact tracers do not reach them.

“We found the time lag between when my wife went to the supermarket and when we were informed a little worrying, especially since the information had been released on social media earlier, which we ignored. So we were concerned about the delay,” Leach told 7:30 a.m.

Since the Tong Li case, workers at three other stores in the center have tested positive for COVID-19.

On Monday, an alert was issued by NSW Health for shoppers across the Campsie complex for 11 days.

The number of close contacts across NSW has doubled in less than three weeks, from 7,000 people in isolation on July 7 to 14,000 people in isolation on Monday July 26 at 1 p.m.

“It could be a sign that there are cracks in the system”

On June 17, only two locally acquired active cases were reported in Sydney. As of Tuesday, there were 172 – the highest number of daily positive cases reported since the start of the Delta outbreak in New South Wales.

There are now question marks over the effectiveness of NSW’s contact tracing system and its ability to control this outbreak.

“Contact tracers don’t seem to be making the progress they’ve made in previous outbreaks,” said data journalist Juliette O’Brien.

“Every day we add about 60 cases under investigation, and maybe only eliminate 20. Today we eliminated 32. So not only is the virus ahead of us, but it is gaining ground.”

She said her analysis of NSW Health data throughout the last outbreak showed a worrying upward trend in “cases under investigation”, meaning they don’t know the source of these positive cases.

“What is concerning with the cases under investigation is that they indicate undetected chains of transmission. This means that something is happening that contact tracers simply do not have. not yet found,” she said.

“It could be a sign that there are cracks in the system.”

‘How many more are not on the list?’

Sydney’s north-eastern suburb of Belrose has also seen a potential super spread event, with local supermarket Woolworths reporting four people working while contagious over the past two weeks.

NSW Health has confirmed that up to 5,000 shoppers have been identified as close contacts and instructed to self-isolate accordingly.

Belrose resident Cathy Priebbenow told 7:30 a.m. that much of her social network is currently in isolation.

“I only really know three people in my area who are not totally isolated,” she said.

Mrs. Priebbenow, who was also identified as a close contact, said her community knew about the outbreak long before contact tracers reached them.

“I learned from a friend…there was quite a bit of chatter [on social media]. Just a concern, I think, because there were a lot of people who attended the Woolies,” she said.

Ms Priebbenow received the first notification from NSW Health five days after her visit to the shops. By then, she had already traveled by public transport to get vaccinated.

“I went to town on a bus to get vaccinated. It’s a little worrying looking back…because if I had been HIV-positive, there are so many people I could have infected,” said she declared.

In a statement, New South Wales Health said exposure sites cannot be identified until several days after the infected person has been present, which then may seem like a delay in notifying the public.

Another Belrose resident, Jo Caller, said at 7.30am that despite visiting Woolworths when it was identified as an exhibition venue, she had still not been contacted by contact tracers.

Ms Caller said when she called NSW Health to find out why she had not received the close contact text message, she discovered there had been a potential problem with contact tracing as her name did not appear not in their data.

“It seems like it was a problem… I had used the QR to check in but I wasn’t on their contact list. They had no record of me being at Woolworths,” she said. declared.

“She [the contact tracer] I couldn’t explain why I wasn’t on the list. But if I wasn’t on the list, how many more aren’t on the list and will be ignored because of the volume of phone calls they have to make?”

“Concerned about the delay”

There are five local government areas across Sydney which have stricter restrictions than the rest of the city. One of them is Canterbury-Bankstown, where Campsie Shopping Center is a popular destination.

It was recently declared a key exhibition site, with thousands of close contacts.

When the outbreak was first detected by NSW Health, mall management were only made aware of it by a security officer.

In response, the head of the center wrote a letter to all stores inviting them to go get tested.

“At this point we have heard nothing from the health department, contact tracers or anyone else,” he wrote.

“GET TESTED URGENTLY.”

This letter was also posted on social media. Justin Leach and his wife came across the letter, but decided to “ignore” it until they heard about it from an official source.

“I immediately logged into NSW Health and tried to check if he [the centre] was listed on one of the websites, and it was not. So we really didn’t know.”

He says his wife received a close contact alert four days later.

“We were worried about the delay.”

NSW Health has now identified 2,495 close contacts linked to Campsie Shopping Centre.

In a statement, NSW Health said around 30,000 people had been contacted in relation to the Belrose and Campsie exposure sites, and that many factors influenced who was contacted and when.

Deakin University epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett said every hour counts when it comes to contacting close contacts.

“Every hour you save is potentially an hour of exposure, one infected person in the community, also saved. So you need to follow up as quickly as possible,” she said.

“If we hear stories that this isn’t happening, then that’s a question mark over the system’s ability to cope.”

Counselor translating contact tracer text messages

The Campsie Mall experience has been replicated in other parts of Sydney.

In Cumberland, which has recently become another COVID hotspot, Councilman Kun Huang says he was also hearing stories of inordinate delays in establishing close contact.

He says a local resident complained to him that it took NSW Health three days to reach him, after a cleaner at his workplace tested positive for COVID-19.

“These time discrepancies are causing significant concern in the community,” he said.

A large percentage of Cumberland City Council’s population comes from non-English speaking backgrounds. Mr Huang says some of them who are identified as close contacts are unsure what to make of the English text messages they receive from contact tracers.

“They ask basic questions: ‘What is this? What are they asking you to do? Is this text even real or is it a scam?'” said Mr Huang.

He said he had already translated government text messages to 10 people in his area.

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