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Almost 200 clinicians working as coronavirus contact tracers

Minister of State for Disability Anne Rabbitte has said more people are being recruited to become...
Jack Quann
Jack Quann

13.32 4 Nov 2020


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Almost 200 clinicians working...

Almost 200 clinicians working as coronavirus contact tracers

Jack Quann
Jack Quann

13.32 4 Nov 2020


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Minister of State for Disability Anne Rabbitte has said more people are being recruited to become contact tracers, to allow other people return to their regular roles.

She said 167 people - such as clinicians, speech and language therapists, occupation therapists and physios - are now part of contact tracing and swabbing.

While 70 Defence Forces cadets have also been recruited to assist with contact tracing.

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Minister Rabbitte told Lunchtime Live: "I am hoping that over the coming weeks that they will return".

She said this timeframe would be "between now and Christmas."

"I am applying immense pressure to get this addressed so as that my intervention teams can return to do their clinician roles of giving the support of speech and language, OT and physio.

"It is an essential service and these children need this intervention.

"Because if we don't get this intervention it has a longer effect on kids progress and development".

The Minister said a recruitment process for new tracers is ongoing.

"There's a recruitment going on there at this moment in time with the HSE for contact tracers and swabbers.

"That is going on and they are recruiting in and training - it takes two weeks to be trained in to either of those two roles".

"In some areas there is more people deployed from the disability teams or from the primary care teams than others.

"For example, I do know we have serious pressure on the Dublin area with relation to backlogs of lists.

"And I've been always open about this in relation to CH09, that we have over 1,852 waiting actually on assessment of need to get that addressed ASAP".

It comes as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that testing capacity has been increased to up to 140,000 tests per week.

Almost 200 clinicians working as coronavirus contact tracers

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Main image: Medical technoligist Beatriz Montoya prepares specimens for the analyzer during COVID-19 testing in the lab at Memorial Regional South in Hollywood, Fla., on May 6, 2020. (Photo by Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS/Sipa USA)

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Anne Rabbitte Contact Tracers Coronavirus Defence Forces Minister Of State For Disability Anne Rabbitte

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