An absolutely mind-blowing number of people are calling tracing centers every day. Tracing services are no longer coping.
In Belgium, there are now close to 50,000 new coronavirus infections per day, not to mention the number of contact cases which is only growing. An SMS was sent to appeal to people’s goodwill.
If you have tested positive for coronavirus, you will receive or may have already received this text message inviting you to complete an online form. “Due to the crowd we are unable to contact you. Stay in isolation for at least 7 days”, indicates this message.
Inge Neven, the head of the Brussels tracing center and of the Cocom Hygiene department, explains to our colleagues from RTL Info that they had to reorganize to deal with the influx of infected people. “With this circulation of the virus, it doesn’t really make sense to call everyone anymore. So it’s a choice we had to make to continue to manage the priorities well.” By “priorities” please mean those considered to be at high risk.
“Positive people can fill out an online form to report their high-risk contacts”, explains Inge Neven. For their part, citizens say they are ready to warn their contacts themselves in the event of a positive test.