OUTAGAMIE CO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – COVID-19 has turned social distancing, isolation and quarantine into words we use every day.
Health experts also want you to add “contact tracing” to your pandemic vocabulary.
When there is a new positive case of COVID-19, local health departments are notified. Health department workers call that person to identify others who may have been exposed.
Those who have been exposed are notified so they can self-isolate and avoid spreading the virus further. No identifying information about the individual who tested positive is shared in these calls, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Both the Outagamie and Winnebago County Health Departments say contact tracing is nothing new. They do it for all communicable diseases. The difference is the sheer volume of calls that they have to make because of COVID-19.
Outagamie County Public Health Officer and Deputy Director Mary Dorn says initial tracing for COVID-19 had them calling 30 to 40 contacts per positive test.
That number now averages three to five contacts.
Winnebago County Health Department says it has also seen similar numbers.
Supervisor Kim Goffard says that’s proof “Safer at Home” is working.
“Obviously because they’re having less contact with people on the outside, they have less of a chance of coming in contact with COVID-19.”
Dorn tells FOX 11 aside from volume, there’s always some challenge to contact tracing.
“Our world has turned to a texting world and not a phone answering world. Many times individuals are not as anxious to answer their phone as they were years ago. So needing to complete an interview with an individual and do it on the phone is a little more complex.”
State health officials say more people will be getting contact tracing calls as testing capabilities increase, and people should continue to engage in the process to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“Our reach out isn’t just to be nosy or anything like that, but it’s really to help answer questions and sort of reaffirm what people’s doctors tell them after they get tested,” Goffard said.
Both the Winnebago and Outagamie County Health Departments have had to add extra staff to make contact tracing calls.
Overall they say people have been responsive to their process.
