Breakdown in contact tracing at meat plants

REPORTS of employers being notified of COVID-19 test results before the employees had been informed – as revealed last week by Roscommon-Galway TD, Denis Naughten – have been confirmed this week by Health Minister, Simon Harris.

Deputy Naughten said this week that the latest confirmation on the circulation of the medical test results – involving nursing homes and meat plants – showed that the most basic data protection rights of individuals had been ignored by the HSE.

He also told the Farming Tribune that the whole handling of the series of coronavirus outbreaks that had occurred in meat plants all across the country raised serious issues about the HSE’s contact tracing process.

“I think that the real fear over those failures is that they could lead to a second surge in the spread of the COVID-19 virus after so much good work has so far been put in by so many people,” said Deputy Naughten.

He said that it had emerged from the clusters of cases in the country’s meat plants was that workers had been allowed to return to their employment before they had received the results of their coronavirus tests.

Deputy Naughten also said that it had been implied that delays in test results had been because of problems in contacting employees who were not from Ireland – however, he said, examples he had provided of delayed results were of Irish people.

“The one conclusion I have come to is that the contact tracing system simply does not seem to be working properly and this has major implications for all of us as we battle against this virus over the coming months,” Deputy Naughten told the Farming Tribune.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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