NEWLY RECRUITED coronavirus contact tracers were instructed to bring their own laptops to work as HSE computers were not yet available, it has been revealed.
According to The Irish Times, the new hires in one contact centre were sent an email telling them “bring your laptop if you have one.”
“You might not need one while shadowing but will need one for work as we are still awaiting HSE laptops,” the email continued.
A spokesperson for the HSE has denied recruits were being asked to work on their laptops, noting that they would not be able to access the tracker system from their computers.
They did, however, acknowledge to the The Irish Times that “a small number of new contact-tracer recruits were asked to bring their own laptops to training in one of our centres.”
“Due to the large number of new recruits, 270 by last Friday, a small number of new laptops are not available yet,” they said.
“This cohort of trainee contact tracers will not be accessing the Covid Care Tracker live system until they are in possession of a work laptop. The Covid care tracker is a Microsoft Cloud system on a secure server and cannot be accessed by external devices.
“All new contact tracers will have a work laptop before they are rostered on to begin contact tracing.”
This latest issue comes hot on the heels of the previous revelation that almost 2,000 people who tested positive for coronavirus between October 16th and 18th were asked by the HSE to carry out their own tracing.
The request came after the HSE system became overwhelmed with positive cases.
