The federal government is ramping up its coronavirus tracing and is thoroughly overhauling its database identifying people exposed to the virus, De Tijd reports on Tuesday.
The intention is reportedly to have a real-time database by the end of August.
The database will make almost continuous updates with information from the labs about the corona tests or from care and prevention workers. This information must be available almost immediately to the operators who are carrying out contact tracing.
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"The bottom line is that the operators in the call centres who have to call potentially infected people receive the very latest information available,” said Frank Robben, IT specialist for the government.
For example, they would be able to see if a prescription for a coronavirus test has been issued to someone, which would mean they would no longer have to call that person. It will also reduce the number of double phone calls to people in one family or apartment building who report each other as contact.
"In addition, we are going to include parameters in the software to detect clusters, mass dispersion in places such as a church, a slaughterhouse or youth camps.”
The intention is for the database to provide a solution to the delays in the system of testing and tracing, about which there are many complaints.
"Now, everything is pumped from one database to another platform once or a few times a day, so to speak, which causes a great deal of delay," said Robben, "while speed is precisely the key to keeping the coronavirus under control."
The new database should work a bit like the federal government's so-called intersection database, according to Robben. This is a database that includes all of the basic data of enterprises and their branch units. Any minor change in it is immediately passed on to all government agencies.
The Brussels Times
