Tracking the Pandemic: Contact tracing ramps up as COVID-19 cases continue to increase.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: HEALTHCARE SPECIAL SECTION

By late-October, more than 11,600 Alaska residents had tested positive for COVID-19, and the numbers were steadily increasing. Because the virus is so highly communicable, there's a good chance that those who were infected passed it onto others, who may or may not be symptomatic. Those people, in turn, could be passing it on to more people and so on--making it an extremely difficult virus to contain.

To identify potential carriers and slow the spread, the state, working with a number of different partners, instituted a COVID-19-specific contact tracing program to help identify positive cases and get them into isolation, as well as reach out to close contacts of those patients to educate them about the quarantining process.

How Does Contact Tracing Work?

When a person is given a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, case investigators from a variety of organizations attempt to identify every single person who has been in contact with the infected person while they were contagious. According to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) website, those with COVID-19 are considered contagious starting two days before' symptoms occurred, or, if they are asymptomatic, two days prior to receiving a positive test.

Those who test positive are asked to provide contact information for anyone with/whom they've been in close contact, and those individuals are contacted by phone to let them know that they were potentially exposed, though the person who tested positive is not identified. These people are asked to quarantine for fourteen days and to watch for symptoms. If they leave quarantine or have visitors, contact tracers must then also work to identify any additional individuals with whom they may have come into contact.

"In addition to identifying people who have been exposed to the disease, we talk to people about the steps they need to take to monitor their health, how to quarantine, and where to get follow-up testing," says Brian Lefferts, Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation's (YKHC) director for the Office of Environmental Health and Engineering; he oversees the contact tracing team as part of YKHC's COVID-19 response team. "We also identify people who are at greater risk of developing the disease, and we check in with them regularly and offer additional medical support if needed. Our goal is not only to identify possible infection but to offer support white doing it."

He adds that everyone who is identified is listed in two categories: they are either close contacts or general population contacts.

"We try to reach out to both groups, though our main focus is on close contacts, who are defined as being less than 6 feet away from the infected person for more than a cumulative 15 minutes," he explains, adding that other conditions are...