“We should, quite frankly, already give up contact tracing. I’m talking specifically about the mild cases of vaccinated people and tracing their contacts,” he explained to the broadcaster.
The health care staff assigned to tracing the contact information should be transferred to the actual care tasks, he added, stressing that many social and health care professionals are not currently working because they have been exposed to the virus or have been positive.
“That’s another reason why resources aren’t used unnecessarily to track contacts. They are needed in healthcare. “
Salminen estimates that the quarantines imposed by the communicable disease authorities should also be scrapped in their current form. He believes workers should be allowed to be away from work for more than a couple of days at their own discretion in case they become ill with a new coronavirus.
The municipalities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area announced their decision to suspend large-scale testing and contact tracing earlier this week.
Ilkka JulkunenThe professor of virology from the University of Turku told YLE that the infection rates will remain high for a few more weeks, adding that they must be managed with restrictions and vaccinations.
“The situation looks bad in the sense that because there are so many infections and contact tracing is at its peak, there is a lot of chance of getting infected, exposed to the virus and new infections,” he said.
The approaching spring offers a glimmer of hope as the third round of vaccinations boosts vaccine intake and immunity.
“Protection after future doses is also likely to be better against future mutations in the virus. This means that there are fewer people prone to the disease and the epidemic can no longer spread as widely.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page