Dublin, Ireland, Oct 27, 2020 -- The Health Service Executive has promised that in eight weeks' time it will have 800 contact tracers recruited to deal with Covid-19.
However, in a statement to RTÉ News, the HSE said that "this process must happen incrementally to ensure supervision and support is provided to the newly trained recruits until they are fully operational".
There are currently 550 staff working in the HSE's national contact tracing centres.
The HSE said that the current recruitment process will generate 1,000 staff in total.
Around the start of the pandemic, in March and April, the HSE had around 2,000 people trained in contact tracing, with a core 600 doing the work, at around nine contact tracing centres.
A large number of health staff were redeployed from their original health posts to assist in this work.
In June and July, the service was reduced to a contact tracing centre in Galway, due to the reduced number of cases being reported then.
Since the resurgence in cases in August and September, the HSE has increased contact tracing staff.
Up to late last week the current number of contact tracing staff was 550, and in addition, the HSE has availed of 60 army cadets supporting contact tracing for one week.
Last week, HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid said: "40% of resources that have to be recruited must be from allied health professionals.
"It is not a contact call centre. It is a clinical call that is the first call, and over the last number of weeks the nature of cases are increasingly complex and calls are taking "much longer".
He apologised to people who were told to alert their own close contacts after they tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend of 17 October, following a surge in cases.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said it was a one-off situation where demand outstripped supply and a one-off operational decision was made to reset the system.
Meanwhile, HSE figures show there are 354 people in hospitals with confirmed Covid-19.
Of these 38 are in intensive care.
The hospitals with the largest number of patients are: Cork University Hospital 30; Cavan General Hospital 27; Tallaght University Hospital 26; Beaumont 25 and Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown with 24.
Yesterday, the Chief Medical Officer urged people to comply with the public health advice around self-isolating and restricting movements.
Dr Tony Holohan said there are "too many stories" of people having Covid-19 symptoms or who are waiting on test results who are not self-isolating, and people who are contacts but are not restricting their movements.
He added that self-isolating means staying indoors completely and avoiding contact with other people, including the people you live with.
His comments came after the Department of Health announced an additional 939 new cases of Covid-19 were notified to it this evening, while three further deaths were also recorded.
It brings the total number of deaths linked to the virus to 1,885, and the overall number of cases to 58,067.
The 14-day incidence rate of the virus nationally now stands at 309.9.
Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: https://www.rte.ie
About Health Service Executive:
The Health Service Executive (HSE) (Irish: Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte) is responsible for the provision of healthcare providing health and personal social services for everyone living in Ireland, with public funds. The Executive was established by the Health Act, 2004 and came into official operation on 1 January 2005. It replaces the ten regional Health Boards, the Eastern Regional Health Authority and a number of other different agencies and organisations. The Minister for Health has overall responsibility for the Executive in Government. The HSE is Ireland's largest employer with over 67,000 direct employees, and another 40,000 in funded health care organisations. It has an annual budget of over €13 billion, more than any other public sector organisation.
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2020
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