Contact tracers put in the hard yards to keep SA on top of Covid-19

Foot-slogging, endless hours on the phone and heartbreaking conversations have become part of daily life for thousands of contact tracers in the five months since Covid-19 took hold in SA.

"A few people have not been co-operating," Western Cape contract tracer Raymond Mhobo said this week.

"I expected that people would adhere to the regulations that were set by government but people just kept moving around, visiting each other. Children played in the streets without wearing masks."

Compliance has gradually improved, but the job has other difficulties, said Mhobo, who works in Robertson, McGregor, Ashton, Bonnievale and Montagu.

"It's difficult to tell people who have tested positive that they should not move around in the community, not visit family and friends and not go to the shops."

A typical day begins with attempts, by telephone, to trace people who have been in contact with new Covid-19 patients.

"Those who we don't reach telephonically, we visit at home," said Mhobo.

"We deliver food parcels to positive clients. We screen people who are close contacts as well as screening employees at businesses. We do loud-hailing in communities and Covid-19 awareness in collaboration with government departments like the police and the departments of education and social development. We have also done roadblocks."

Farhaana Ebrahim, a physiotherapist at Victoria Hospital in Wynberg, Cape Town, became a Covid-19 case manager in April after being "screened as high risk due to diabetes and being asthmatic, as well as my risk of exposure as a physiotherapist".

"Coming into this job was slightly daunting at first, mainly because we all knew very little about the Covid-19 outbreak and how it would affect the country," she said.

"I started off as a case manager responsible for calling cases and doing contact tracing. As time passed my job description has changed and I was trained in doing lots more.

"As case managers, our role is to get the patients' relevant demographic information, assess whether they have received the results of their Covid-19 test, [check] any relevant comorbidities or symptom progression, assess their living situation, inquire or refer the case to an isolation facility, and calculate de-isolation dates based on the case's clinical stability."

Ebrahim said that not having the Covid-19 contacts' correct details was one of the main problems, alongside language barriers.

"Being a case manager requires you to be able to think on your feet, to be able to advise patients on possible solutions based on their home environment and personal situations. No two cases are the same," she said.

"Some cases have been really heartbreaking and others made me feel proud to have been able to assist in their road to recovery."