Less than 10 per cent of Covid-19 passenger locator forms filled out by those entering the country in the first week of December were successfully followed up by phone call, figures show.

The forms are required in order to confirm people’s location in the country to assist with any necessary contact tracing.

Once here, people are initially contacted via text message and, when they do not respond, are supposed to receive a phone call.

Hospital Report

Figures obtained by Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall show that from November 30th to December 6th, 25,636 correctly completed locator forms were submitted of which 2,490 were successfully followed up by phone, a rate of 9.7 per cent.

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During that week, 23,552 people arrived into the country by air and just over 11,000 came in and out of the country by boat (arrival specific figures are unavailable).

“We have a situation where less than 10 per cent of the passenger locator forms are being followed up successfully with phone calls,” Ms Shortall said.

“If we don’t have vigilant monitoring of incoming passengers, it is hard to see how we can control our borders to prevent the importation of the virus and the new strain. We have never had proper monitoring since the pandemic began, and yet again we have mixed messaging about testing and self-isolation for people travelling.”

The same data shows that through the three main airports, 128,039 people arrived between October 26th and December 6th, and 43,861 people moving in and out by boat.

In the same period, 128,118 forms were correctly filled out while 16,742 were either incorrect, ineligible or invalid.

During that time, there were 40,080 calls, 16,439 or which (41 per cent) were successful. There were also almost 47,000 text messages.

Exemptions

In response to queries on traffic and passenger follow-ups, the Department of Health focused on November during which it said more than 99,600 forms were submitted.

Several categories of traveller are exempt including those transiting directly on to Northern Ireland.

“Address verification is completed by sending an interactive text message requesting that travellers verify their place of address submitted on the Covid-19 passenger locator form. Follow-up phone calls are made to those that do not respond to the text,” the Department said in a statement.

“If they are not available at the first call, further attempts may be made to contact each passenger who is in scope for follow up calls.”

During November over 30,000 arrivals verified their address via text. A further 27,000 follow-up phone calls were attempted with contact made in 11,054 cases. “Address verification was completed for 79 per cent of passengers in scope for these follow up engagements,” the Department said.