Woman with COVID-19 still waiting for contact-tracing call

A University of Ottawa student who has beensick with COVID-19for over a week says no public health officialshave contacted her to find out where she was and who she spent time with.

Kate Brown, asecond-year health sciences student, said part of her problem may be that her labresults were initially sent by mistake to the public health unit where her parents live, not Ottawa's.

Either way, she said no one from Region of Waterloo Public Health or Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has followed up with her to get contact information for the peopleshe'shad close contact with or to identify theplacesshe visited while she could have been contagious.

"I just think it's irresponsible that they aren't really doing what they're supposed to be doing," Brown said in an interview as she self-isolated in herstudent residence.

"If I didn't let my friends know or let the restaurants know, there could have been a way bigger spread of it."

Without a call from public health,Brown acted as her own contact tracer.

She disclosed her positive result to the friends she had recentclose contact with and the restaurants she had visited.

"If [my friends] didn't know, I assume they probably would have just carried on going to the grocery store, going to the mall or meeting up withother friends to study," said Brown.

Brown said nine of her friends have since tested negative for COVID-19 while at least one other is awaiting her results.

Contact tracing strained

Ottawa Public Health said in an emailed statement that the high number ofcases, along with the large number of contacts emerging from school exposures,has affected its ability to contact people in a timely manner.

"We are currently prioritizing contacting school-aged children and vulnerable people living in long-term care homes and retirement homes," the statement said.

"If contact information is missing on any lab results, OPH needs to investigate to find other means of contacting the individual, all of which can take time. And, there can be a lag time from when a patient finds out they are positive and when OPH receives the lab report."

WATCH | Provincewide contact tracing challenges:

Critical contact tracing backlog as COVID-19 cases rise in Ontario

4 years ago

Duration 2:01

Ontario has put a lot of effort into ramping up its COVID-19 testing, but experts say contact tracing is lagging woefully behind and it may be too late to fix the problem.

According to OPH data, contact tracers in the past weeksuccessfully contacted only 57per cent of people who tested positive within 24 hours of receiving their lab results, well below its 90 per cent standard.

Contact tracers have reached 80 per cent of close contactswithin 24 hours of learning their identities.

• Ottawa breaks another record with 105 COVID-19 cases
• Ontario's test and trace efforts aren't working well enough, physicians say

On Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott touted their government's plan to add1,000 more people to manage cases and trace their contacts.

"With the increasing volumes that we're receiving of people being tested, the contact tracing has to increase as well," Elliott said.

"We have put a billion dollars into expanding both the testing [and]lab facilities, as well as the contact management."