THE HSE IS to offer a second way to trace the close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases – by sending a link to those who have tested positive for Covid-19 and getting them to register their close contacts.
From today, if you are notified that you are positive for Covid-19, the link to the close-contact portal is sent to you in that same text message from the HSE. If you click on this link and list your close contacts, the HSE’s test and trace team will contact and notify the people who have been listed.
If you don’t list your contacts through the portal, the HSE will contact you as normal.
Niamh O’Beirne, the HSE’s National Lead for Testing and Tracing, said:
“We just launched our new ‘List your close contacts’ portal. We are asking Covid positive patients to click the link and list their close contacts. We will then text their contacts so they know. This enables faster tracing. Thanks to those who have already used it today.”
Damien McCallion, the HSE lead on the vaccine rollout programme told RTÉ’s News at One programme that the portal aims “to try and accelerate the contact tracing process and provide another channel for people”to identify their contacts.
“So at the moment, people are called over the phone, and that will continue to be the case.
“But this option is there for people when they’re identified as the index case, they will get a text with a link where they can go in and enter their close contacts, and in some cases that may help speed up the process, the contact tracing process.
“But if someone doesn’t use that, they will still get a phone call to go through their contacts as normal.”
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