Alberta put its contact-tracing system on life support. Can it be resuscitated?
CBC
Charlotte says when she started work as a contact tracer in 2020, she was excited.
She was eager to help with the pandemic effort and she felt by investigating COVID-19 cases she could make a difference — identifying and tracking the spread of the virus, while supporting those who tested positive.
A second contact tracer, Linda, called the early work fulfilling.
"It was busy, but, you know, we really felt like we were playing a vital role," she said.
"At the beginning, it was a decent work environment. We had support, we had the numbers, we had the organization," Charlotte said.
"And then, since about August, that has not been the case."
August was when Alberta planned to drop isolation requirements and start treating the COVID-19 not as a pandemic, but an endemic disease like the flu. Hundreds of contract tracers were laid off or had their contracts not renewed, as they would no longer be needed to notify close contacts and would only continue to investigate "high-risk settings."
Those plans didn't last, as cases doubled and doubled again, but contact tracers who spoke to CBC News said even with new staff added by Alberta Health Services (AHS) during the fourth wave, the system isn't working to stop people spreading the virus.
"Personally, I can't keep up," said Linda, adding that fixing the contact tracing system "is going to be very difficult."
CBC News spoke with two contact tracers in Alberta for this story. They've been given pseudonyms as they fear impacts on their employment if they are identified.
At its height, during the third wave in May 2021, Alberta's contact tracing workforce numbered around 2,500.
On Sept. 25, AHS said it had approximately 320 to 360 contact tracing staff working each day — a number officials said was scaled up accordingly as cases increased. At that time, AHS didn't say how many total contact tracers were employed by the organization.
A spokesperson has since provided more detail, saying that as of Oct. 12, AHS now has approximately 1,124 total contact tracers and case investigators, as well as 295 casual staff.
It's working to fill postings to increase its pool of casual staff, redeploying workers from other areas like public health and Connect Care, and extending temporary positions.
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