Can someone just clarify something for me regarding T&T?

[QueenofmyPrinces]

If you have a positive test, how far back do they ask you about where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing?

@Justanswer

You tell me! I’d love to know why the welsh answer their phones more than people in England

It isn't the nature of the people answering that is different.

So the difference is with the contact records, or the callers, or the messaging.

The problem is the system. It's not world-beating, it isn't working.

@Justanswer

You still don’t seem to get it- no one answers their phones! It wouldn’t matter if Boris was calling them. They don’t want to engage with the system- BEFORE any one has called them! Why? Have a think about it

They answer in wales!

In NI they get 98% contacts.

You need to knock on doors. That's the difference.

England should have boosted local council public health teams, not just lobbed a multi-billion contract at a private firm with no experience in this kind of work.

Darwen is backfilling the contact tracing.

In Addis Ababa they knocked on every single door in three weeks. Our system is not good enough.

Getting tired of saying this, it’s not about the callers as they usually don’t manage to speak to people🙄. Maybe the constant criticism undermining T&T doesn’t help? Maybe the Welsh are less selfish and more altruistic? Who knows. I just wish everyone would work together For all our benefit. It’s the way only forward.

And In China they drag people
Out of their house into forced quarantine.

China has nothing to do with it. My point about Addis Ababa is when you knock on doors people answer.

IMO England deserves a functioning system. Johnson promised world beating - but as good as Northern Ireland would do.

The difference is other countries listened to their existing public health experts. England got Dido Harding and private companies with NO experience. That is why it isn't working.

Stop blaming English people, who are no better or worse than the Welsh or anyone else.

Uh not everyone answers the door !- Loads of times I’ve read on here about people refusing to open their own front door unless they know who it is - and besides people might be at work
As for the phone I never answer unless I know the number, all unknown numbers are filtered off ( thanks to a combination of a violent ex. Nuisance date who kept calling and annoying cold callers)

This thread has now made me paranoid.
We went out on Saturday for a few drinks and food.
Today whilst I was in a call during work I got a call but I didn’t pick it up and completely forgot about it.

It’s an 07x no message left.

Now wondering whether it’d be t&t. Tho sure they’d. Have left a message wouldn’t they ? Or called again.

They might answer the door in Addis Abbaba, doesn’t mean they supply the required information or respond appropriately to health advice. That said home visits are being planned in some areas. Shouldn’t be necessary though.
But by just blaming the system you are really part of the problem. Of course it needs improvement but people need to take some responsibility. The same people Who are ignoring calls and advice will be whining if schools don’t Reopen/pubs close again/ holidays get cancelled/they lose their jobs. This isn’t going to go away until we all do our bit🤷‍♀️

@Heatherjayne1972

Uh not everyone answers the door !- Loads of times I’ve read on here about people refusing to open their own front door unless they know who it is - and besides people might be at work As for the phone I never answer unless I know the number, all unknown numbers are filtered off ( thanks to a combination of a violent ex. Nuisance date who kept calling and annoying cold callers)

Not everyone answers the door but people who need to be contacted usually can be. If you were in your house, and the door went, then again, then someone shouted 'im calling from the council' most people will answer.

Current t&t is getting around 50%, that's low.

It takes persistence, yes.

Yeah, sure I'm the problem presumably I'm talking track and trace down.

The home visits are being planned by local councils who have had to backfill due to track and trace failures.

Stop blaming the public (and me!) for a waste of money contract thrown at a company with no experience in public health.

OK Think we have to agree to disagree overall on this one 😊 I do think you’re correct in some of what you say- but the bottom line is many people are stupid selfish idiots- and they dont need ANY encouraging to be stupid and selfish. 👍

Well unfortunately they get a lot of encouragement to be stupid and selfish from the PM imo.

Agree to disagree probably wise given it is nearly midnight! Goodnight!

Cant disagree with you on that! Goodnight!

Is there any point in identifying the source? I understand what you're saying but the amount of data to triangulate a moving source would be huge. If Fred has the virus, goes to Tesco on Monday, a hospital appointment on Tuesday and a restaurant on Wednesday before feeling poorly on Thursday, how and why would it help to know where he caught it? By the time you identify the source (if you can) they are probably ill or better.
It's not like food poisoning with a fixed food selling place linked to an outbreak. The source can be moving around and it might not be one source all the time.

Is there any point in identifying the source? I understand what you're saying but the amount of data to triangulate a moving source would be huge.

I know - I guess there’s no answer to such a complicated problem.

I just sorry for all the people who have told they can’t be close to family members, and possibly going back to the “bubble with one family member only” approach because apparently family contact is the biggest source of transmission.

I get that transmission rates are high amongst family contacts as that is who we generally spend most prolonged contact with, but the family member who gave the virus to the other must have caught it from somewhere.

If it was identified that pubs were a hot spot for transmission because a large volume of infected people say they were in a pub 10-14 days prior to the symptoms started, then it makes sense to close the pubs as opposed to ban people from seeing their family.

It was my understanding that the gradual release of lockdown was to identify what businesses/activities were a risk in terms of increasing infection rates and then act on that.....but how is this being monitored? How can anyone possibly know if the re-opening of pubs and restaurants is responsible for the now increasing rates if T&T aren’t asking people if they’ve been in one at a time when they may have picked up the virus in the first place?

I know it’s an impossible task I suppose, it just seems so short sighted to only identify the people who may be at risk over the last 48 hours, but not to try and identify if there is any like to where the virus may have been contracted.

On one hand people are saying it’s very unlikely you can pick up the virus in a pub, it’s all Covid-secure, tables spaced out, staff in visors etc etc, but on the other hand there is talk of closing pubs to enable schools to re-open, as though having a drink in a pub is going to impact on infection rates amongst pupils.

If pubs are not risky places to be in and they are not likely to be original places of infection then why do they need to close?

I assume it’s because anything that prevents a large number of people being together inside a venue, no matter how Covid secure it is, may help reduce transmission rates which is what’s important, but it just seems like there’s not much sense behind anything.

If pubs are deemed to be a risk factor in increasing transmission rates then they should be closed now, not in another months time.

Sometimes I feel like the actions/decision of the Government are carried out in order to make it look like they’re doing something, as opposed to actually doing something that’s actually going to make a difference.

@QueenofmyPrinces

Sometimes I feel like the actions/decision of the Government are carried out in order to make it look like they’re doing something, as opposed to actually doing something that’s actually going to make a difference.

Sorry to say I think this is the correct interpretation. Border quarantine is a prime example - there is zero enforcement. If they meant it, there'd be some form of enforcement.

OP I agree with you. I also think the general attitude of people towards T&T is unhelpful.

People moaning that the handlers haven't been well trained or aren't experienced- this virus only arrived this year. We need an army of T&T's, so it follows that they are newly trained and new to the job.

People moaning about being asked to give contact details of possible contacts- I appreciate it's awkward but how the hell else can the system work?

It's not an easy solution, and it's not perfect, but it's all we have atm and I can't see a different way to do it. People are so quick to criticise and to point the finger and announce that they will not comply. So of course the system will be of limited use when so many people refuse to engage.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

Is there any point in identifying the source? I understand what you're saying but the amount of data to triangulate a moving source would be huge. If Fred has the virus, goes to Tesco on Monday, a hospital appointment on Tuesday and a restaurant on Wednesday before feeling poorly on Thursday, how and why would it help to know where he caught it? By the time you identify the source (if you can) they are probably ill or better. It's not like food poisoning with a fixed food selling place linked to an outbreak. The source can be moving around and it might not be one source all the time.

The priority is to determine contacts and assess risk to try and prevent further transmission. However tracers will also be looking back over the case’s previous 7 days in order to flag up any common patterns/sources of infection and learn more about how it spreads. As it’s a new virus and an evolving situation, this information will aid the longer term control and hopefully enable us to get back to a some normality. So please do respond to Test and Trace - it might help keep schools and pubs etc open👍

They do go back further. I'm just doing my training now. When they go back further they are looking more at places you have been to cross reference other cases to see if there are cases originating from same place to identify ourbreaks. Initially they look at 48 hrs befpre symptoms to identify contact, later in call looks like we delve further back.

But shouldn’t they go back further than that to try and identify possible sources of where I got it?

They do. My email and telephone calls did.

48 hours for onset of symptoms or positive result if symptoms not known - that is for who you need to inform, and who need to isolate.

5 days before symptoms, or positive test if no symptoms - this is for determining where you might have caught it.

I think it was via the emailed link where I entered where Id been in the 5 days before symptoms started.

I also added the 48 hours bit too via that link and that was checked when they called me.

Interestingly PHE for school were only interested in the 48 hours before my test, not the symptoms because they weren't not he the key 3. So my work (school) contacts were for a different time frame to my out of work ones.