Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. If a person tests positive after being in a community already, what is the government's response or protocols around contact tracing? Could the Minister please walk me through a scenario of what would happen in that instance? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for the question. There is a protocol in the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer that a team who are trained to do contact tracing then figure out who the contacts are and then confidentially call those people and make them aware that they are a contact of somebody who has tested positive. They give them advice on the next steps to take in the event that that has happened.
I heard her mention that there had been training on contact tracing. Has the staff of the Department of Health and Social Services as well as the CPHO had formal training, certified training, on contact tracing?
Yes, thank you. The training is done by the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer. I'm not sure what the Member has in mind with formal training. There is a national protocol that is being followed. I don't know if that's what she means, but this is not something unique to the NWT. There is a formal process, or a national process, that is followed in contact tracing.
I'd ask then, if there has been training done, if the Minister would supply me with records of training for the staff of the CPHO and the HSS. In the recent cases of COVID in Yellowknife, were these protocols followed?
I don't have an answer to the Member's question.
More of a comment: I can't believe the Minister doesn't know if her own protocols were followed in a case such as this.
Thank you. I'll take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
