We are continuing to keep you up to date with the fast-moving government and HSE guidance to keep our work colleagues, customers and our families safe.
Preparing for Contact Tracing
Another step in your workplace measures if you are not already doing it, could include preparing for contact tracing.
Contact tracing may be required in relation to a work colleague or a customer who has been confirmed with the Coronavirus.
Thus, in some workplaces staff are being asked to complete a daily log of all individuals with whom they have had close contact* with during the working day. The log is completed every day, even if there have been no such contacts.
The log will be used if contact tracing is required in the event of someone in the workplace testing positive for Coronavirus.
Close Contact
*A close contact is any individual who has had greater than 15 minutes face-to-face (< 2 metres distance) contact with a laboratory confirmed case in any setting.
The HSE guidelines also state that for those contacts who have shared a closed space with a confirmed case for longer than two hours, a risk assessment should be undertaken taking into consideration the size of the room, ventilation and the distance from the case.
Please refer to the HSE guidance for full definitions.
Casual Contact
**A casual contact is any individual who has shared a close space with a confirmed case for less than 2 hours.
The HSE guidelines also state that any individuals who have shared a closed space with a confirmed case for longer than two hours, but following a risk assessment, does not meet the definition of a close contact is therefore a casual contact.
Please refer to the HSE guidance for full definitions.
Who does the Contact Tracing
The contact tracing is done by the HSE and their teams.
All people identified as having had a contact with a confirmed case or a highly likely suspected case will be assessed to see if they are a close or a casual contact.
The job of contact tracing will be made easier by the maintenance of daily contact logs.
HSE Guidance on Contact Tracing
The HSE Contact Tracing guidelines are helpful to review so that you can take measures in your workplace now to make contact tracing easier if and when it is required.
Please refer to HSE guidelines and take advice from relevant health care authorities. This guidance is intended as a helpful guide but is not intended to provide an expert opinion on how to prepare for contact tracing.
Other Considerations
Some other considerations regarding contact tracing may include:
- Who keeps and co-ordinates the company records?
- Should these details be kept electronically to make it easier to process, or simply paper-based and collected daily by a person with responsibility to do so
- How will GDPR be dealt with? Staff should be advised the records are for the Coronavirus situation only. Should staff be notified these record will be destroyed in due course, say every 4 weeks or so?
- Is someone appointed to act as contact person for the HSE?
