‘Speaking to sick people is the hardest part of my job’: Victorian contact tracer pleads for people to follow the rules

A Victorian contact tracer who asked to stay anonymous tells Crikey what it’s like working across the state’s sixth lockdown.

At the end of the fourth lockdown, I got a job as a contact tracer in Victoria. I’m studying public health and saw that the hospital put a call out for contact tracers and figured the job was closely related to my future career prospects.

At first, things were pretty clunky and slow, but soon enough the unit got proficient at tasks, with QR codes making things a lot easier. The computer system tells us the names, phone numbers, and exposure sites people were at. Interviews used to take four hours, but now they’re down to 30 minutes. Shifts were actually pretty hard to come by in the beginning but with this wave, things ramped up. 

Now we’re no longer linking mystery cases unless there’s clear transmission and no longer collecting information about where infectious people have been unless they’re been to a high-risk location like a school or hospital. This means you might have come into contact with someone infectious in a store, but it won’t be listed as an exposure site. 

The hardest part of the job is the personal part — telling someone they might have COVID-19 and have to isolate from their children and families. It’s really hard for them and we just try to walk them through the rules about what happens when their test result gets back. 

We tell them if they develop symptoms they need to call an ambulance, but some people say their symptoms are just asthma. You don’t know that. You need to go to the hospital. 

Speaking to sick people or people who might have COVID-19 is incredibly sad. It’s really hard to hear babies coughing and crying — there’s no vaccine for them and there’s nothing they can do. I’ve spoken to parents who are too tired to talk to us because of the disease. It makes people so, so sick. 

The most frustrating thing is seeing people in public not following the rules, not wearing masks, or hearing about people having gatherings. I see these people on the street and I know those are the ones I’m going to be on the phone to at some point. 

We used to work in the hospital but are now doing our jobs from home. I take up a few shifts a week to manage my studies, and I stay longer on my shift if I can and if I’m needed because sometimes there is a huge workload. 

I’m going to keep doing the job for as long as I can unless I have a mental breakdown from the combined stress of my job, studies, and being stuck in lockdown. The pay is pretty good — for casually employed students, the base rate is around $30 an hour plus weekend loadings.

If I can convince anyone to get the vaccine, I want to. It’s definitely working and I would recommend everyone getting it as soon as they can. Follow the rules, and if you have to meet up with a friend because you’re going mental, please do it in a park instead of at someone’s home. Please don’t break the rules and put your family at risk.