Test track trace. How will it work?

[Torquay99]

I'm not rubbishing it btw, I'm genuinely wondering how this will work. Nothing I've read so far has been clear.

If somebody is diagnosed with the virus how can every person they've been in contact with possibly be traced?

If they've been to the busy supermarkets three times in one week and had to use multiple modes of transport to get to and from work during the week, if they've passed it on to people walking down the street by coughing etc.

How on earth can everybody be traced?

To what extent are contact cases being traced?

What am I missing?

Without a functioning app I don't really understand either.

The chances of passing on the virus from walking past someone in the supermarket are very small. The people they really need to trace are the ones you’ve been in prolonged contact with who you are much more likely to know.

People tell you where they have been. People you casually pass in the street arent at risk. Public health have done contact tracing before. We will still be in a form of lockdown and having face to face contact over 15 min with very few people. They are the ones needing traced

Thanks, that makes much more sense.

I was wondering how on earth they'd manage to find every person you've been in the same place as / sat on the same bus as etc.

We can sit here doubting every method and attempt to actually get data that would restrict the spread of this thing... and paralyse ourself as a result because perfect becomes the enemy of good.

No thanks.

I'd rather have some more data, however occasionally flawed, than have none at all but ask people to be "alert" and talk about "optimism" and "hope" as tools to beat a fucking VIRUS.

They will be looking for people that you have been in close contact for 15 minutes iirc. Walking past someone in the street or supermarket is not close contact. If you are doing the correct social distancing it will be people you work or live with that come into this category. Not that hard to figure out.

It will be impossible to trace everyone without a location based app (this is what Wuhan did fairly effectively). Otherwise, in normal contract tracing which the NHS and PHE already do for lots of infectious diseases (chlamydia, HIV, big listeria outbreaks, etc), it’s usually done through interviews and just generally using public health surveillance to track those who have likely been exposed.

It’s not at all an unusual practice and we certain have people in our trust who do it as a major part of their job (nothing to do with covid). But contract tracing a respiratory infection, especially when everyone idiot is off at the beach or going to the supermarket 5 times a week, is nearly impossible.

But contract tracing a respiratory infection, especially when everyone idiot is off at the beach or going to the supermarket 5 times a week, is nearly impossible.

That was something that crossed my mind. People are flocking to beaches and beauty spots, queuing for extended periods of time much less than 2m apart to use toilet facilities or buy food. Behaviour like that is going to make what sounds like a potentially good system, extremely difficult.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/21/uk-first-coronavirus-contact-tracing-group-warns-of-difficulties

This is a very good read

Whenever I have been to my supermarket everyone has been keeping their distance. The media have (joyfully) focussed on the people not doing it and transiently passing close to someone is unlikely to spread coronavirus.

They will ask you to name everyone you have been within 2 m of for over 15 minutes. There shouldn't be too many of those. For situations such as schools or hospitals there will be more but names should be easier to get hold of. There's not much chance of spreading in by brief contacts. Although there is obviously some risk, especially with public transport. It remains to be seen how effective it will be. I think some cases will fall through the net, even if everyone tells the truth