What to expect when a contact tracer calls you

From San Francisco to Massachusetts, local and state health departments across the country The spread of coronavirus COVID-19, by tracking contact with people who tested positive for the illness it causes.

An initiative known as Contact traceFirst identifies the infected person and records where they went and who they contacted. Then follow those contacts to see how they feel and determine if they have been tested and need to be quarantined.

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Desirable outcome: Break the epidemic’s epidemic chain and allow the health sector to know where it is in the community, and ultimately use that knowledge to determine where and with what capacity. Lift the isolation order and resume the economy.

Contact tracking at national level Can cost billions of dollars Public health experts say they need to hire more than 100,000 people, and with increasing testing are important steps to prevent the spread of the virus. To do this, interview the infected person using a phone, text, or mobile app, and TechnologyYou will need to track and monitor people, including using smartphones.

San Francisco will use a workforce of 140 people, including medical students, librarians, and staff at the city’s law firm at the University of California, San Francisco, to examine and interview a list of virus-positive people. Such laborious research has been done in the past to understand HIV outbreaks, sexually transmitted diseases, and other respiratory disorders. Including SARS.

As the 15th largest city in the United States, with more than 880,000 residents, San Francisco currently has a population of over 1,100. COVID-19 example At least 20 deaths were recorded as of Monday, and a relatively low figure reflecting official statements was “curve flattening.”

All clinicians in the city who care for someone with COVID-19 and all laboratories that handle positive tests should report the case to the Department of Public Health. With this, San Francisco is building a database of contacts.

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The city’s Department of Health employs software developed by Massachusetts-based technology company Dimagi. Real-time tools do not track people, according to the company Bluetooth technology, So High Tech Giants are Proposing What to DoInstead, it allows the contact tracer to follow a series of prompts during the interview to maintain a queue of cases and their respective status.

Dr. Grant Colfax, the city’s director of public health, said participation in the contact trace is voluntary and no one will be asked for immigration status, social security numbers, or bank details. He added that although English and Spanish language options are available, the system also includes Cantonese, Mandarin and Tagalog.

Contact tracking varies by local and state health departments, but the San Francisco program is highlighted as a blueprint for other places that are stepping up efforts.

Contact tracers typically start with the “first case pending”. This case is based on those who were tested positive for COVID-19 and provided information about other people they identified as having contact. This usually begins with a family member, roommate, or partner.

The tracer usually attempts to contact him by phone and says, “You have been called because you have been identified as a close contact with someone who has been confirmed a new coronavirus infection. Know who that person is.” If so, please tell me your name. “

If the contact doesn’t know the name of a registered positive case, the tracer should explain, “I still think I may have been infected by a virus, so I’ll ask you some questions.”

To protect your privacy, your contact will not be given the name of a person who has been tested positive, but usually you do not know who that person is. Dr. Michael Reed, a San Francisco infectious disease specialist who runs a contact tracking program, said.

The tracer then asks a series of demographic questions, such as date of birth, preferred language, race, and whether or not you live with a positive person. The tracer also asks if it has been tested for COVID-19. If you have not been tested, do you need help to take the test, occupation and living situation are as follows: Do they live in single-family homes or apartments, are homeless shelters or are imprisoned?

San Francisco contact tracer Lucia Abaskal said in a recent press tool demonstration that the city could determine if knowing people’s lives would need the resources to find a suitable place for quarantine. Is important for you to do so.

The tracer also assesses the contact’s current health status and checks for physical symptoms such as shortness of breath, intimidation and coughing. If your immune system is compromised, you are at increased risk and check whether you are in basic health.

Clinicians will follow up with people classified as high risk in 7 to 14 days.

The tracer then asks for more information about the individual’s potential exposure in positive cases. If the patient is asymptomatic but has not started, they will be asked to quarantine for 14 days.

The tracer asks if he has enough food and drugs for the two weeks, and if not, asks the health department for help.

The contact may agree to receive daily text messages, which will then be sent to the system as high or low risk. Contacts with a positive test result will then be followed up to provide potential contacts.

For San Francisco, he said the “ambitious goal” was to create a case file for everyone who would test positive and build their contacts from there.

“If we want to move beyond Shelter-in-Place, we need to capture all that contact information accurately,” he told reporters.