Contact tracing is critical to our community's ability to continue limiting the spread of COVID-19. People who participate in contact tracing are actively helping to keep their community safe by helping public health officials track the virus.
Contact tracing involves educating people who are sick so they understand why they need to isolate, making sure those people have what they need to stay isolated, and identifying additional people who may have been exposed.
Patient Care and Isolation
- The first step is to help a person who is sick understand why they need to isolate and find out what Public Health can do to help them stay isolated until 24 hours has passed since recovery (defined as resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and improvement in respiratory symptoms); and at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared.
- Sometimes people need a place to stay, food, or even help with basic tasks. Helping with those needs is part of what Public Health does during contact tracing.
Investigation
- The next step is to identify everyone a sick person may have come into contact with and accidentally exposed to COVID-19.
- These are people the sick person was around for up to 48 hours before they started feeling sick and while they were symptomatic.
- “Exposure” means within 6 feet for 15 minutes or longer.
Monitoring
- Public Health strives to contact each individual who was exposed to COVID-19 by the sick person.
- Once contacted they educate them about why they are being contacted, find out if they are feeling sick, and then recommend that they stay home and away from other people (quarantine).
- During this time, the person is advised to watch for symptoms and take their temperature twice a day.
- Persons Under Monitoring (PUMs) have ongoing contact with Public Health during their monitoring period.