Gintare Pilvelyte is a 29-year-old epidemiologist from Lithuania, currently working as a contact tracer with the National Public Health Centre. Contact tracers like her are COVID-19 detectives, identifying cases so that we can understand how the disease is spreading.
“I run many epidemiological investigations every day to trace the contacts of those infected and thus prevent the spread of the virus,” she explains. “This is not always easy because patients often don’t name their contacts or talk about events they have attended.”
Contact tracing has been a key tool in the COVID-19 response, and not only because it can help stop chains of transmission. Good contact tracing enables us to get ahead of the virus.
In this video, Gintare explains what her work is about and how the pandemic has changed her life over the past 2 years.
This Universal Health Coverage Day, WHO/Europe is shining a spotlight on all health and care workers, including those who do not always wear scrubs, for instance, contact tracers.