Province no longer doing contact tracing; Manitobans asked to notify own close contacts

Canada is anticipating a surge of Omicron COVID-19 cases in the coming days and weeks. In Manitoba, health resources are being diverted to vaccination and testing, and as a result, the government is now asking people to do their own contact tracing.

On Monday the government updated its contact tracing information page to say, “this increase in cases and contacts is expected to exceed public health contact notification resources. To reduce the risk of further transmission, confirmed COVID-19 cases will now be asked to provide notice to close contacts.”

Epidemiologist Cynthia Carr, says given the rapid rate of Omicron transmissions already seen in other provinces and countries, acting quickly to alert close contacts is critical in getting COVID-19 infections under control.

“I would not be surprised if we actually have faster and better results,” said Carr.

Carr believes asking individuals to contact trace could be extremely beneficial in the fight against COVID-19 because people who gather often speak the same language, which has been a barrier in the past when public health contacts someone who doesn’t speak French or English.

Phone scammers have made people wary of answering unknown numbers, but people recognize their friends and family’s phone numbers so they should pick up the call, says Carr

She says health information is sensitive, so sharing it with people you know can be easier than sharing over the phone with someone you have never met.

“We can take this on, we are better at phoning our connections and getting them to answer us than a perfect stranger,” she said.

According to the Government of Canada, COVID infections over the last seven days have topped 55,000 new cases as of Monday.

Ontario and Quebec have the most, with each province seeing more than 20,000 new COVID-19 cases in that time period. Alberta had more than 3,500 new cases, with Manitoba sitting right above 1,600.

Anne Ross of Winnipeg says asking individuals to take on the task of contact tracing is a good call.

“I think it’s a great idea, I think we all need to do as much as we possibly can to keep everybody safe,” said Ross.

But not everyone thinks self-reported contact tracing will work. Ron Boissonneault is concerned people who test positive for COVID-19 may not disclose it to others.

“I really believe that they are going to keep it to themselves,” said Boissonneault.

As for Carr, she is encouraging people to not be fearful of alerting close contacts if they become COVID positive. She says the best chance we have of getting ahead of the Omicron variant is speed and vigilance.

“Although that might feel uncomfortable to phone someone and tell them that you are a case, they will be much less likely to thank you if you don’t tell them if they then become infectious and infect others as well,” she said.