reopen economy Canada contact tracing

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What needs to happen to successfully reopen the economy in Canada

Three important steps.

In this morning’s daily briefing, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau outlined three important steps that need to be taken to reopen the economy in Canada. As explained below, a key component of this is contact tracing.

“Today I want to outline what we know needs to happen successfully to reopen the economy and adjust to our new normal in Canada,” Justin Trudeau said.

“First, we need to continue scaling up our testing capacity so we can quickly identify new cases and isolate them. 

“Second, we need to accelerate our ability to do contact tracing. After we have confirmed and isolated new cases, we have to keep in touch with everyone who may have been exposed to the virus and make sure they take measures to quarantine and monitor themselves for symptoms, or get tested. Our government has trained federal employees to make 3,600 contact tracing calls a day, seven days a week. Statistics Canada also has an additional 1,700 interviewers ready to make up to 20,000 calls a day. These federal resources are available to assist provinces and territories with any surges, back logs and challenges they have with contact tracing.

“Third, we have to ensure the data collected across jurisdictions is shared between provinces and territories. This will help us track the spread of the virus, adapt our response accordingly and save lives.” ■

For official info from the Government of Canada on COVID-19 / Coronavirusclick here.

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