Contact tracers will from today extend their backwards tracing from two to seven days for the 20 per cent of positive coronavirus cases where transmission is unknown. For these people it is necessary to spend more time asking additional questions about their whereabouts over the previous seven days. Now was the “right time” to extend contact tracing to seven days, as numbers were stabilising, Ms O’Beirne told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland radio programme. Informing the publicThe purpose of extending the tracing to seven days was also aimed at informing the public, she said. Extended periods of contact tracing were introduced on a trial basis in early December when numbers were at 200 a day, but abandoned when infections started to spike during the third wave.

Source: The Irish Times March 29, 2021 10:44 UTC