Public trust a must for effective contact tracing

In Sri Lanka October has been the worst since the outbreak first broke (AFP) 

• While the Melbourne lockdown has brought down the numbers, in Sri Lanka October has been the worst since the outbreak first broke
• More so that the strain is virulent and according to the WHO, Sri Lanka’s numbers are going up, while those in the region are going down

Looking at Sri Lanka while stuck somewhere thousands of miles far off has always given me a sense of living in two parallel universes. 
Like the time I ended up in a side street in Yangon, Myanmar in an old Rosa bus that reminded me of getting to school in a similar vehicle decades back. Or meeting with Sri Lankan colleagues forced to flee the country because they just wanted to tell their stories. Meals with them would be surreal, trying to save the last morsels of the Luni-miriss from home like they were gold dust. 

Since the pandemic, that sense has been amplified. The longest I have been locked down has been during the last three months in Melbourne, 112 days to be exact. Just a few weeks back, I would wake up and my social media feeds would be full of those in Sri Lanka travelling all over the country. While I was risking a hefty fine travelling beyond the 5km radius from my residence to buy bread. The number of infections reported from both countries were not that far apart though. 

The situation has changed on its head in the past month. While the Melbourne lockdown has brought down the numbers, in Sri Lanka October has been the worst since the outbreak first broke. 
Since the chance discovery of a COVID-19 infection from the Brandix factory in Minuwangoda on October 4, that cluster has grown. By month’s end the cluster that also includes the Peliyagoda Fish Marker outbreak stood at 7581, out of a national total of 11060. To get a comparison on how fast the situation had deteriorated, by October 2, the total caseload in Sri Lanka was 3382, according to the Epidemiology Unit. Of that 3245 had recovered and there was only 124 in hospitals. 

A month later little less than half of infected had recovered and 5790 were in hospitals. 
Sri Lanka has not fared well with the contact tracing. Despite the induction of intelligence operatives and the full cooperation on mobile phone networks, contact tracing has failed. 
No one really knows who was Patient Zero for the latest outbreaks. We can reasonably assume it came from overseas, from where we have no clue; only wild guesses that place him or her from India to Ukraine. 
The little what we know should frighten us. More so that the strain is virulent and according to the WHO, Sri Lanka’s numbers are going up, while those in the region are going down. 

When case numbers ballooned, requests and quasi circulars for data pools became common, like seeking all government and non-governmental organizations to keep records of their employees to contact trace or asking the public to take note of the public transport they would take. 
In the past week I have seen a few opinions coming out on the importance of contact tracing and using mobile tech to do that. 
But what is paramount here is data privacy. Here in Australia, opting into the tracing app is an independent choice and the data that harvested and shared is clearly specified. 

“It is vital that should contact tracing efforts be upgraded using technology, data privacy and security concerns are taken very seriously, so as not to compromise the confidentiality of not only medical information, but also contact information and current locations. The effectiveness of using such digital tools is predicated on how many citizens are willing to utilise them; ensuring data privacy and security will increase public trust in using such tools for contact tracing, which should allow for an increase in their uptake and therefore, effectiveness,” Citra Lab, a joint initiative of the State Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational Education, Research & Innovation and UNDP, Sri Lanka said last week. 

Citra Lab authors also highlighted that digital tools to work effectively, there is a need for a plethora of support tech and human resources. Whether Sri Lanka has them, is yet to be gauged.
But a pertinent point is why so many Sri Lankans shy away from sharing personal data with non-state and state entities? Why did 100’s of Brandix employees give false addresses? 
What I heard from some of them was that the demonizing victims is not working? Nor is treating them like criminals. 

If contact tracing is to work, there  needs to be public buy-in, for that there needs to be public trust they would be treated fairly and equally. One would not work well without the other. 
The writer is a Post-grad Researcher at CQUniversity, Melbourne focusing  on online journalism and trauma
Twitter - @amanthap