Accelerating COVID-19 Contact Tracing Capacity through Multi-Sectoral Collaboration Training in Indonesia

PURPOSE: Contact tracing is a pivotal component for containing an outbreak to stop the spread of COVID-19. As the 4(th) most populous country in the world, contact tracing in Indonesia is resource intensive. There was an insufficient human resources to undertake the reporting task with surveillance staff already overburdened with sample and data collection. Participation of various stakeholders is critical in providing an effective capacity surge in tracing. This paper describes how multi-sectoral collaboration training can contribute to accelerate contact tracing capacity in Indonesia. METHODS & MATERIALS: A series of contact tracing training program in Indonesia was held through the various stakeholder collaboration, including the Ministry of Health, COVID-19 National Task Force, Ministry of Education and Culture, Universities, and international partners. Not only primary healthcare officers, the training engaged community volunteers, young professional, and university students to enable them performing COVID-19 contact tracing and data management across Indonesia. Descriptive statistics and paired t-test analysis were taken to measure the effectiveness of the pre- and post-test training, and evaluation questionnaires to improve participants’ knowledge. RESULTS: A total of 2,513 community volunteers and young professional from 10 provinces and 2,005 university students from 268 universities across Indonesia have been trained from January - July 2021. 4 batches of trainings have produced 64 data managers in all 34 provinces. At the beginning of the training, only 33% of participants reached satisfactory score. Post-training scores increased significantly to 66% participants reached satisfactory score with p-value = 0.000 (CI: 95%). 82% participants rated the effectiveness of training as good, and 90% stated that the training responded to their needs. The training has successfully increased the number of tracers in Indonesia as and improved the national tracing data collection. Surveillance data showed that from January to July 2021, the national tracing data has increased from 261,482 to 785.711 COVID-19 close contact traced. CONCLUSION: Multi-sectoral participation and collaborative contact tracing training has helped the Government of Indonesia to increase human resource numbers and capacity in providing an effective capacity surge of tracing for the country. This will enable to support COVID-19 mitigation and intervention program and policy.