I went for a coffee at a cafe in Birmingham this morning.
Their method of complying with the contact tracing guidelines was for me to text my name to a given number.
Presumably if there is an outbreak connected with that cafe they would then text or phone me.
Then it struck me that wouldn't it be better if the cafe maintaned some kind of spreadsheet or list of all the relevant phone numbers, rather than waiting for an outbreak to occur, giving the details to NHS Track and Trace, and then expecting NHS Track and Trace to phone everyone, possibly involving several calls to reach one individual.
There are websites and apps which enable the same text message to be sent to several people similtaneously, and I think it would help to improve the effectiveness of contact tracing if we used technology intelligently.
The other thing is that we could all do our OWN contact tracing, rather than waiting for the NHS to do it for us.
I know that if I were to test positive, the first thing I would do would be to get on the phone to my family, plus any other establishments that I have visited in the past few days and tell them, rather than waiting for the NHS to do it for me. People might be more inclined to believe a message that comes from someone they know, rather than an anonymous phone call from a number which could be a scam for all they know.
The telephone number that NHS track and trace use should be widely publicised, and people encouraged to store it in their phones, so that they would be more inclined to pick it up if they should receive a call from that number.
What do people think?
Does anyone have any other ideas for improving the contact tracing process, which could then help the country manage the pandemic better
Their method of complying with the contact tracing guidelines was for me to text my name to a given number.
Presumably if there is an outbreak connected with that cafe they would then text or phone me.
Then it struck me that wouldn't it be better if the cafe maintaned some kind of spreadsheet or list of all the relevant phone numbers, rather than waiting for an outbreak to occur, giving the details to NHS Track and Trace, and then expecting NHS Track and Trace to phone everyone, possibly involving several calls to reach one individual.
There are websites and apps which enable the same text message to be sent to several people similtaneously, and I think it would help to improve the effectiveness of contact tracing if we used technology intelligently.
The other thing is that we could all do our OWN contact tracing, rather than waiting for the NHS to do it for us.
I know that if I were to test positive, the first thing I would do would be to get on the phone to my family, plus any other establishments that I have visited in the past few days and tell them, rather than waiting for the NHS to do it for me. People might be more inclined to believe a message that comes from someone they know, rather than an anonymous phone call from a number which could be a scam for all they know.
The telephone number that NHS track and trace use should be widely publicised, and people encouraged to store it in their phones, so that they would be more inclined to pick it up if they should receive a call from that number.
What do people think?
Does anyone have any other ideas for improving the contact tracing process, which could then help the country manage the pandemic better