Contact tracing for COVID-19 outbreak in Bahrain : resource allocation and use of non-health volunteers

The Disease Control Section in the Public Health Directorate is responsible for contact tracing amid the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The Section recruited volunteers to strengthen their contact tracing team. Moreover, a nationwide call for volunteers was ignited in order to support the groups with vigilant case investigation and tracing in order to limit the spread of the infection in the community. This viewpoint report shares the experience of the disease control section with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, shedding light on the use of non-healthcare background volunteers and their roles in contact tracing. The utilization of volunteers during outbreaks and emergencies helped multiple entities to continue their operations and thrived through expanding themselves into teams and units. Regardless of the skills and backgrounds of the volunteers, they were allocated efficiently according to their area of interest. This experience indicates that a sustainable volunteer pool is valuable to have, even in non-emergency occasions.