Israel's understaffed epidemiological investigations apparatus for coronavirus patients is lagging far behind other contact tracing systems in the West, according to a new report published Thursday by the Coronavirus Center for Knowledge and Information.
The report proposes to substantially increase the number of epidemiological investigators and adds that a current government plan to hire hundreds of additional investigators will be enough to meet the demand.
According to data, Israel currently has one epidemiological investigator for every 300,000 people. This number is expected to drop to one investigator for every 30,000 after the plan is executed.
The United Kingdom has one epidemiological investigator for every 2,200 people and Germany one for every 4,000 people.
In the United States – the State of New York has one investigator for every 6,200 people and Michigan has one for every 1,400 people.
Epidemiological investigations are necessary to track people who may have come in contact with a coronavirus patient and isolating them to break the chain of infection. An investigator must compile a dossier of the patient's recent whereabouts as soon as possible.
Epidemiological investigations in Israel are carried out by nurses and medical students while other countries in the West don't solely rely on medically trained staff.
Michigan and New York recruit volunteers to help carry out investigations. In the UK, only a third of investigators are medical professionals and the rest are volunteers.
Some 25,000 Americans were trained as investigators by the John Hopkins Hospital through a six-hour online course, while countries like Austria and the UK have instituted a government online investigative process to expedite investigations efficiently.
The report examined the geographic spread of epidemiological investigators around the world. Countries such as Japan, Singapore, Germany, and the Czech Republic have their investigators spread over hundreds of locations. Officials in those countries said that this method's major advantages are investigators' intimate knowledge of the local population, potential hazards in the area, as well as an understanding of the nuances of the local language and culture.
The report also notes that different authorities, such as healthcare, law enforcement, research, and the local government must communicate better between them.