A brief thread in support of @TOPublicHealth 's announced decision to stop contact tracing right now (and hopefully be allowed to focus on the kinds of population-level interventions @epdevilla and @JohnTory discussed yesterday ( https://www.toronto.ca/news/torontos-medical-officer-of-health-recommends-the-province-take-immediate-action-to-stop-the-further-spread-of-covid-19/)

Suspension of contact tracing right now is EXACTLY the right thing to do...CT is theatre when our cases are occurring at this level. Let's think through the numbers.

TPH has almost 1000 dedicated contact tracers, working morning to night. If 300 cases per day are each generating something like 10 contacts each, that means there's both case follow up, and 3 new contacts for each of these workers per day (3000 contacts/1000 workers).

Tracking these people down takes time, as does checking in with them daily until they can either leave quarantine due to a negative test, or until they've been isolated for 10 days (if they can't be tested).