Tracing Citizens with Positive Covid-19 Tests

Introduction

The best path to be successful in the policymaking process is to express the problem in the context in a manner people can clearly understand (Weiss, 2007). An issue can be looked at by different people in different ways bringing up different views. Below is a summary of how the problem of tracing of citizens with positive virus (Wuhan, Covid-19, and Corona) tests has been defined by three different people and the influence the definitions have caused to the way the issue is viewed.

Definition of the Issue

The problem ‘Tracing of citizens with positive virus tests’ has been defined by Joel Hellewel (Hellewell, 2020) as a measure that has been used to control the outbreaks of the infectious disease and brings out that the Mathematical model is used to assess if isolation and contact tracing will control more transmissions. Hao- Yuan Cheng describes the issues and adds that tracing and isolating the patients alone may not curb the virus, and more measures need to be put in place (Cheng, 2020). Yixiang Ng also defines the problem as a containment measure involving patients and contacts isolation and quarantine to curb the deadly infectious disease (Ng, 2020).

Influence of each definition to how the issue is viewed

The first definition by Joel Hellewel makes the issue be fixed to the best and most likely the only measure that can be taken towards curbing the virus. The following description brings out the view of contact tracing not being the only measure to be taken for curbing the virus, and the last definition widely describes the meaning of contact tracing and what it involves.

In conclusion, a problem should at all times be well defined for successful policymaking since vague definitions of problems may ultimately lead to wrong decisions.

References

Cheng, H. Y. (2020). Contact Tracing Assessment of COVID 19 Transmission Dynamics in Taiwan and Risk at Different Exposure periods Before and After Symptom Onset. JAMA Internal Medicine, 20-28.

Hellewell, J. (2020). Feasibility of Controlling COVID-19 Outbreaks by Isolation of Cases and Contacts. The Lancet Global Health, 15-20.

Ng, Y. (2020). Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Surveillance and Containment Measures for the first 100 pATIENTS WITH covid-19 In Singapore. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15-20.

Weiss, H. (2007). What’s Different About Evaluating Advocacy and Policy Change? The Evaluation Exchange, 20-32.