State Approaches to Contact Tracing during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The University of South Dakota’s Community Action Response Epidemiology (CARE) team partnered with the state to provide contact tracing and health promotion for the university and for the state’s tribal communities.

The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) recommends employers identify someone whom employees can notify if they test positive for COVID-19. This point of contact can then work with TDH to investigate the case, including identifying and notifying other staff who might be at risk. TDH also provides recommendations for contact tracing to staff members, clients, and close contacts in congregate settings, such as shelters, group care homes, and residential facilities. Contact tracing in these settings should include identifying roommates, people who shared bathrooms, and whether staff wore appropriate personal protective equipment.

It is the local public health department’s responsibility to perform contact tracing in schools and universities. School districts can assist by notifying identified close contacts, asking them to stay away from school, and notifying public health departments. When a school is notified of a confirmed case, it should contact the local health department to provide contact information and other details about the case. The local health department will then recommend ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the school.

The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases, presumptive positive cases, and their contacts. Contact tracers help link people with supports, such as how to get food during self-isolation.

In Austin, all restaurants allowing dine-in services and all retail services with allowed occupancy of 75 or less are encouraged by the mayor to maintain an activity log with contact information for customers and employees as well as dates and times they sat or were served.

The state requires schools to notify their local health department and all teachers, staff, and students’ families if a positive case has been in a school. Schools must also submit an online form alerting the state of the cases, which will be posted publicly on the state website. Two of the state’s largest school districts, however, said they will only notify families of students who were close contacts because this policy is not a legally binding  requirement.

If an employee tests positive, the Utah Department of Health’s Worksite Team will follow up with the business to offer resources and help identify other employees who might have encountered the person who tested positive.

Each school will designate a point of contact to work with the health department on contact tracing. If an employee, teacher, or student at a school tests positive, the health department will work with the school’s point of contact to obtain a list of known close contacts for the health department to complete contact tracing.

The state relies on epidemiology teams to conduct contact tracing in long-term care and group living settings if a case of COVID-19 is found.

If a positive case was at a school during his/her infectious period, the state will reach out to school administrators to determine next steps and work with the school to notify students and staff who might have been exposed. The state also posts a list of confirmed positive school-based cases and transmissions on a weekly basis.

The University of Virginia partnered with its local health district to fund seven new positions for contact tracing on campus. The university will also provide points of contact and resources to the health department to expedite contact tracing.

Virginia Commonwealth University has hired its own contact tracers.

In long-term care facilities, residents who were cared for by staff who were symptomatic and tested positive will undergo careful monitoring and have limited exposure to others. Roommates of residents who test positive will also have limited exposure to others. In correctional facilities, contacts of those who test positive will be quarantined for 14 days with twice-daily symptom and temperature checks.

If a school or child care facility is operating in person, the state requires school and child care personnel to participate in contact tracing investigations. Staff at these facilities will provide detailed information to state contact tracers, such as who was in certain areas of the facility at a given time and contact information for children or staff associated with the facility. In K–12 schools, contact tracing includes working with school staff to obtain class schedules, seating charts, and other information.

Contact tracers inform people of prevention measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. Contact tracers can also help connect people with resources they might need while they stay at home, including shelter, food delivery, essential item delivery, or other assistance.

Contact tracers offer recommendations for quarantining and sign people up for self-monitoring. They can also connect people with isolation facilities.

Restaurants and bars must maintain logs of employees’ working hours by date and time to help with contact tracing when needed. Child care centers that have either a staff member or a child test positive will be immediately shut down until contact tracing can be implemented to determine the spread of the infection.

Contact tracers refer people to Alabama Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, which seeks to support and help people who are self-isolating. This organization offers cooperation, coordination, communication, and collaboration among voluntary organizations active in disaster relief, though it is not a service delivery organization.

Contact tracers provide instruction, education, and support to ensure close contacts do not infect others if they become ill themselves.

The state recommends contact tracers work with employers if a positive case attended work while infectious but cannot remember who they came into close contact with.

The state health department also asks individuals who test positive to call close contacts as soon as possible and asks all Alaskans to help by keeping their social circles small and keeping track of all contacts.

The state recommends congregate settings maintain visitor logs to aid with contact tracing efforts.

In one county, older individuals who test positive and anyone living in a communal setting receive a phone call from a live contact tracer, while new cases among younger, lower-risk individuals are contacted via text message.

Among the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona, contact tracing includes home visits.

Contact tracers provide information to help people safely quarantine, find alternate arrangements as necessary, and help them get tested, if recommended. Contact tracers also connect people with services available through the Arkansas Department of Health, such as food delivery or alternate housing.

Contact tracers refer people to their local public health departments for more information about available resources, such as housing and other resources.

Contact tracers tell people how to get tested and how to quarantine, including linking them with resources that can help with quarantining, such as food, lodging, and personal financial help.

ContaCT platform will identify and refer people who need support at initiation and throughout self-isolation or self-quarantine. Case workers will support people in self-isolation or self-quarantine by connecting them with state, local, and regional resources as necessary, such as food and housing.

The state establishes a rapid response team as needed to address outbreaks and implement best practices in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

The contact tracing mailer outlines how a positive case should talk to their close contacts, but no other resource sharing is specified.

In August, contact tracing began to include home visits for individuals who did not complete contact tracing interviews or could not be reached by contact tracers.

The state requires that contact tracers call grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, and other businesses to inform them if someone who tested positive recently visited the establishment.

Contact tracers assess people’s needs and connect them with a care resources coordinator to get them support to help with quarantining.

In August the state announced that social workers, rather than contact tracers, would offer education and resources to those required to isolate or quarantine. People travelling to the state are monitored for 14 days. In August, the state was prioritizing contact tracing for individuals with high-risk occupations, living in high risk settings, or with high risk factors.

Contact tracers connect people to a case investigator or support services as needed, such as getting them needed food, medications, and services.

If someone reports living or working in a congregate setting, the case is flagged to the local health department, which then investigates to determine if there is an outbreak at the facility.

Contact tracers offer to set up services, such as grocery deliveries, and share advice on how to safely social distance or quarantine.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment advises prisons to do initial and periodic screening of inmates and to screen staff and visitors and requests all cases be reported immediately to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Epidemiology Hotline, which is monitored 24/7.

Contact investigators will refer people who need additional resources, such as groceries, to social support coordinators.

The state recommends contact tracers notify any restaurant and/or retail business if someone diagnosed with COVID-19 reports they visited that restaurant and/or retail business in the 14 days since being diagnosed, as well as to provide additional guidance and next steps.

Contact tracers try to link the person who tested positive, as well as close contacts, to important health and social services needed while they are required to stay at home. For example, the state hired Volunteers of America to help coordinate “needs assessment” teams in various regions across the state, which would link people to needed services in their communities.

The state asks businesses that reopen to maintain contact information for clients and customers and the staff who have come into contact with them in case someone tests positive for the virus.

Local boards and the Community Tracing Collaborative help arrange for medical and quarantine support for positive cases. Contacts receive testing and quarantine support (through care resource coordinators) for themselves and their households, if applicable, and general information as needed.

Contact tracers investigating cases of COVID-19 investigations are responsible for indicating when people who test positive can return to work. Local boards of health, with assistance from epidemiologists, conduct extensive investigations and contact tracing if clusters of cases emerge in long-term care facilities and nursing homes.

The state recommends that businesses have policies and procedures for workforce contact tracing if an employee tests positive. The state links to Ford’s Return to Work Playbook as a resource, though notes that businesses should not rely on the playbook as best practices for each workplace. The playbook gives an overview of contact tracing, including having human resources help identify close contacts of people who tested positive, who are then asked to stay home and monitor symptoms for 14 days.

In July, the Kansas City Health Department reported it was prioritizing higher risk case investigations and contact tracing.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services recommends that contact tracers send a thermometer to people who have tested positive and their close contacts, inquire about wraparound services, link to clinical services, and provide advice and instructions on how to quarantine.

Contact tracers hand off cases that involve exposure in a congregate setting for a higher-level investigation given the high risk.

In July, the state announced plans to identify high-risk businesses through contact tracing.

The Department of Health and Human Services (NHDHHS) recommends long-term care facility staff conduct enhanced surveillance in the event that a resident tests positive. In the event of an outbreak, the facility will coordinate with the NHDHHS Cluster investigation team.

Contact tracers connect people with supports and offer information about how to keep their family safe while staying at home.

Contact tracers provide education and information to cases on how to separate themselves from others and connect them to services they might need.

Contact tracers connect people with case managers who offer supports to make sure that people who must isolate or quarantine have access to needed services, such as food, shelter, mental health care, and more. The state also provides a resource packet that includes a thermometer.

The state recommends testing all asymptomatic employees and residents in group living situations in which someone is suspected to have COVID-19. Long-term care, assisted living, and residential care facilities are expected to develop and implement plans for ongoing monitoring, including testing residents and staffs at least once a month.

Community health nurses provide information on how to isolate, the possibility of asymptomatic transmission, and how to help others monitor themselves for symptoms. The contact tracing investigation identifies if the person may have exposed any high-risk congregate settings. Special teams then notify and provide follow-up recommendations to the facility.

Contact tracers refer positive cases and contacts to supportive services, including medical and social services.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) recommends that any residents in residential treatment facilities for children and adolescents who were recently cared for by a staff member who tested positive be restricted to their rooms and monitored for symptoms. SCDHEC recommends that adult day care facilities keep logs of names and contact information for all staff, participants, visitors, and vendors in case the DHEC needs to contact them.

The South Carolina Department of Corrections (DEC) conducts contact tracing if an inmate or staff tests positive in a correctional facility. The DEC built an app to assist with tracking infections among prison staff, such as locations they had traveled to. The app can also link with badges to ensure those at risk cannot enter prisons.

Some school districts have worked with the state to develop a letter to alert parents that their children might have been exposed to a positive case.

The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) recommends employers identify someone whom employees can notify if they test positive for COVID-19. This point of contact can then work with TDH to investigate the case, including identifying and notifying other staff who might be at risk. TDH also provides recommendations for contact tracing to staff members, clients, and close contacts in congregate settings, such as shelters, group care homes, and residential facilities. Contact tracing in these settings should include identifying roommates, people who shared bathrooms, and whether staff wore appropriate personal protective equipment.

It is the local public health department’s responsibility to perform contact tracing in schools and universities. School districts can assist by notifying identified close contacts, asking them to stay away from school, and notifying public health departments. When a school is notified of a confirmed case, it should contact the local health department to provide contact information and other details about the case. The local health department will then recommend ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the school.

The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases, presumptive positive cases, and their contacts. Contact tracers help link people with supports, such as how to get food during self-isolation.

In Austin, all restaurants allowing dine-in services and all retail services with allowed occupancy of 75 or less are encouraged by the mayor to maintain an activity log with contact information for customers and employees as well as dates and times they sat or were served.

The state requires schools to notify their local health department and all teachers, staff, and students’ families if a positive case has been in a school. Schools must also submit an online form alerting the state of the cases, which will be posted publicly on the state website. Two of the state’s largest school districts, however, said they will only notify families of students who were close contacts because this policy is not a legally binding  requirement.

If an employee tests positive, the Utah Department of Health’s Worksite Team will follow up with the business to offer resources and help identify other employees who might have encountered the person who tested positive.

Each school will designate a point of contact to work with the health department on contact tracing. If an employee, teacher, or student at a school tests positive, the health department will work with the school’s point of contact to obtain a list of known close contacts for the health department to complete contact tracing.

The state relies on epidemiology teams to conduct contact tracing in long-term care and group living settings if a case of COVID-19 is found.

If a positive case was at a school during his/her infectious period, the state will reach out to school administrators to determine next steps and work with the school to notify students and staff who might have been exposed. The state also posts a list of confirmed positive school-based cases and transmissions on a weekly basis.

The University of Virginia partnered with its local health district to fund seven new positions for contact tracing on campus. The university will also provide points of contact and resources to the health department to expedite contact tracing.

Virginia Commonwealth University has hired its own contact tracers.

In long-term care facilities, residents who were cared for by staff who were symptomatic and tested positive will undergo careful monitoring and have limited exposure to others. Roommates of residents who test positive will also have limited exposure to others. In correctional facilities, contacts of those who test positive will be quarantined for 14 days with twice-daily symptom and temperature checks.

If a school or child care facility is operating in person, the state requires school and child care personnel to participate in contact tracing investigations. Staff at these facilities will provide detailed information to state contact tracers, such as who was in certain areas of the facility at a given time and contact information for children or staff associated with the facility. In K–12 schools, contact tracing includes working with school staff to obtain class schedules, seating charts, and other information.

Contact tracers inform people of prevention measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. Contact tracers can also help connect people with resources they might need while they stay at home, including shelter, food delivery, essential item delivery, or other assistance.

Contact tracers offer recommendations for quarantining and sign people up for self-monitoring. They can also connect people with isolation facilities.

Restaurants and bars must maintain logs of employees’ working hours by date and time to help with contact tracing when needed. Child care centers that have either a staff member or a child test positive will be immediately shut down until contact tracing can be implemented to determine the spread of the infection.

150 people are working on contact tracing, up from 120 earlier this year. A plan discussed by state officials in May to have school nurses conduct contact tracing never materialized due to barriers with availability of the school nurses and getting them trained before school restarts.

The state health department has a contract in place with the University of Alabama at Birmingham for medically-trained phone bank operators to conduct contact tracing for the state. In June, the state reported that a contract was being negotiated with a professional contract tracing firm that was expected to begin working in Alabama, however, as of October, no additional details about this were found. A CDC team was assisting the state health department until July 3, 2020.

In July the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Center for Rural Health and Workforce announced a partnership with the state to train a targeted 500 contact tracers. The center has a budget to hire 150 of the 500 to create a surge workforce.

–Training state employees;

-Working with statewide university partners to utilize faculty, staff, and students in public health, medicine, nursing, and social work programs;

-Partnering with the federal CDC Foundation for recruitment; and

-Assigning new employees to staff up to 40 teams of public health investigators, which can be deployed statewide.

In mid-June, the governor also authorized the National Guard to help with contact tracing efforts.

In July, Pima County began contracting with a private company, Maximus Health Services, to hire at least 150 contact tracers.

In July, the state authorized medical and public health schools at the University of Arkansas to conduct contact tracing for public and private colleges and universities in Arkansas. The project will involve establishing two contact tracing centers with 75 contact tracers, two center directors, and an assistant center director.

In August the state announced a philanthropic effort to provide funding to community-based organizations to support local public health departments with contact tracing, connect individuals who are not able to isolate and quarantine to services, and support local public health departments in building a culturally and linguistically competent contact tracing workforce.

The state expects to have 800 to 1,000 people in place by the end of summer to conduct case investigation and contact tracing, providing surge capacity to help local public health departments when their staff is overwhelmed. The state health department hired 50 public health students to serve contact tracers. Local governments have are also retrained public workers (morgue workers trained in El Paso county; police in Denver). In June, the state announced that more than 800 AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members will support the state’s COVID-19 response, including contact tracing.

A volunteer group of public health professionals, the Colorado Public Health Workforce Collaborative, is working to provide structure and support to local public health agencies by coordinating statewide initiatives that ensure an effective and efficient rollout of a contact tracing workforce, recruiting and training that workforce, and monitoring the rollout, as well as facilitating complementary COVID-19 containment activities.

In August, the state announced plans to fund five community organizations to provide outreach related to COVID-19. Both the state and local health authorities are planning to hire community health workers to support contact tracing by building trust in communities.

As of July, NORC had hired 150 telephone-based contact tracers and the state had hired 13 field-based tracers.

Later than month, the state hired a third-party call center, Maximus, to bolster the state’s contact tracing workforce by supplying 600 additional contact tracers.

In August, the state reported that a total of 4,400 people were involved in contact tracing, including 2,600 employees and 1,800 contracted workers.

In June, the state reported it had deployed about 1,300 contact tracers and case investigators. In July, the state said it plans to hire 700 additional tracers.

The National Guard began assisting the state with contact tracing in August, along with University of Hawaii interns and students, staff from other state departments and Medical Reserve Corps volunteers.

The state also announced the COVID-19 Pandemic Health Navigator Program, which will utilize pandemic health navigators to provide education and outreach to vulnerable communities, coordinate resources for those infected or exposed, and provide contact tracing support to the Illinois Contact Tracing Collaborative. The state is planning to implement resource coordinators to make sure people who test positive have the food, medications, and services they need to self-isolate. The state is creating a standardized hiring process and an online training program.

Chicago contact tracers include redeployed staff from local health departments and health care organizations. The city is also working to build partnerships with community health workers, students, and others.

The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership will hire 600 people to conduct community-level contact tracing efforts. Employees will be hired for 18 months and are expected to start in August. The Workforce Partnership will be required to set aside 85% of the funds for at least 30 neighborhood organizations that will conduct the work. The partnership will work with University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, NORC at the University of Chicago, Malcolm X College and Sinai Urban Health Institute to create the new system.

Cook County is expanding its contact tracing workforce from 25 to 400 using federal funds. The county launched the Suburban Cook County COVID-19 Contact Tracing Community Supports Program with a funding opportunity of up to $5.45 million to applicants to focus on priority populations, expand resources to help households quarantine, and increase assess to testing.

The state may ask retired health care workers and medical students to supplement and provide expertise to the call center staff. State and local health department staff will focus on cases that could lead to outbreaks.

Tracers will take a three- to four-hour online training course provided by the American State and Territorial Health Officers.

In July, the Indiana University School of Public Health announced it had entered into a contract with Indianapolis to hire, train, and manage over 300 contact tracers through Dec. 31, 2020.

In September, the state reported 1,200 contact tracers statewide including those at local health departments.

In August, the state had 52 contact tracers and was onboarding new hires with the goal of achieving a total of 100 tracers.

The Louisville health department expanded from 9 contact tracers to 55 through reassigned staff and volunteers; they will expand by another 100-200 through a contract with Lacuna Health, a health care call center, answering service and telehealth provider.

The state health department is working with Deloitte Consulting on the statewide contract tracing effort and partnering with vendors across the state to hire up to 700 contact tracers and social support connectors. A social support coordinator assists with any daily needs, such as groceries, a person may require help with while isolating.

In August, the state had a total of nearly 700 contact tracers.

In August, the state had 100 employees working on contact tracing and Mountain Desert Island Hospital announced it would begin contact tracing to alert those who have come into contact with out-of-state visitors who test positive for COVID-19, using the Situational Awareness Response Assistant (SARA) Alert system.

In September, the state allocated $1 million to 24 organizations under the COVID-19 Health Equity Improvement Initiative to support culturally-tailored prevention, education, and social support activities. In addition, the state is also partnering with: Community Action Program agencies to assist individuals who need to quarantine or isolate; Wabanaki Public Health to support Maine Tribal members with COVID-19; and Catholic Charities of Maine to provide supports for racial and ethnic minorities and assist in contact tracing efforts throughout the state.

One local health department reassigned school nurses and disease prevention and behavioral health nurses. Another partnered with a community college to hire and train contact tracers.

In June, the state reported scaling back the number of contact tracers to 1,200 due to declining cases. In July, the workforce shrank again, leaving 700 contact tracers. In September, Partners in Health began scaling up their contact tracing workforce again, from a low of 550 over the summer.

Another county (Springfield-Greene) is contracting with a private company, Maximus, to provide contact tracing services.

In August, Montana State University reported it would hire contact tracers to focus on any cases in their community. The tracers will be part of the county’s health department team.

As of July, the SHD had 417 tracers calling cases and contacts state-wide, with a total of 950 staff are trained to help if needed.

In July, Clark County announced plans to bring on more than 400 positions to support contact tracing. The Southern Nevada Health District began contracting with a call center in July, adding 100 contact tracing staff. They are also adding staff through a university, a grant, a state contract, and staff from the County’s Department of Family Services. In northern Nevada, 70 students at the University of Nevada Reno have been hired by the Nevada Public Health Training Center to help other local health agencies track the virus.

In August, the state reported having 1,612 staff involved in contact tracing. A private company, Public Consulting Group, will take over recruiting and management of contact tracing staff going forward.

In June the state had 280 staff to fill contact tracing roles, 230 of which were health department employees reassigned to contact tracing, along with 50 new hires.

The state also contracted with Accenture Healthcare Services to set up a call center with up to 600 tracers.

In June, NYC had hired 3,000 tracers and was beginning to add home visits in addition to phone calls. The city outsourced most of the initial hiring to the Bachrach Group, a recruiting firm, and contracted with Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, to help set up and manage a call center.

As of July, there were over 1,500 full-time and part-time staff supporting contact tracing efforts at the local level, including  919 Community Care of North Carolina contact tracers. The state also selected a pool of vendors to further expand its contact tracing efforts. In July it expanded this list to include more vendors, with priority given to minority-owned business vendors or vendors who retain a diverse workforce.

In collaboration with Community Care of North Carolina, the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers Program created an onboarding training curriculum that local health departments can use to onboard volunteers and other staff who will take on the role of contact tracer or case investigator.

In June, the state reported that about 1,400 people at the local level were conducting contact tracing, with an additional 100 people hired and trained them to support those 1,400 if needed.

In June, the state launched a contact tracing call center and reported that their contact tracing team stood at nearly 600 individuals.

The state plans to train at least 600 contact tracers, deployed statewide by county, with a focus on recruiting individuals with cultural and linguistic competence for the populations they serve. The state will create several teams of public health workers who can deploy within communities. Team members could be volunteers, hired and/or contracted by state or local health authorities or tribal governments.

In June, the state reported that 500 people were serving as contact tracers at the local level, with an additional 100 state health department staff ready to assist counties with contact tracing. Local health departments are reassigning staff and partnering with universities, hospitals, and clinics for additional tracers. Also in June, the Public Health Institute and the Oregon Public Health Institute partnered to hire additional contact tracers for Washington County, OR, focusing on multi- and bilingual skills.

The state is creating the Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps, which will bolster existing local and community contact tracing efforts.

More than 800 additional contact tracers volunteered through the ServPA platform, at least 50 through AmeriCorps and hundreds more through other community organizations. Regional consortiums will assess the number of contact tracers needed in each area of the state, recruit and train contact tracers and coordinate information and data.

In July, the state announced a contract with Insight Global to recruit, hire, train, and support 1,000 paid contact tracing staff to further COVID-19 contact tracing efforts in collaboration with local and regional health entities. This will supplement the 654 existing contact tracers across the state. Volunteer trainings have been placed on hold.

In September, the state created a dedicated contact tracing team for schools staffed with 50 people.

In August, the state health department’s website reported it had more than 740 individuals trained to perform case investigations across the state, supplemented by 230 active contact monitors. A total of 600 contact monitors have been trained to date and will be deployed as needed.

In September, the University of South Dakota’s Community Action Response Epidemiology (CARE) team announced it would partner with the state to conduct contact tracing. The CARE team includes current health sciences undergraduate students, recent graduates, and School of Health Sciences faculty members.

The state previously expanded its workforce by reassigning staff from the health department and other agencies and by partnering with the National Guard.

The state is looking to increase its existing contact tracing workforce of 300. In at least one county, public employees are have been been reassigned to fill these roles.

The state is contracting with the MTX group, a private technology company, to build and manage a team  of contact tracers, with a goal of recruiting 4,000 tracers. As of the end of August, MTX hired 605 contact tracers. The state also hired 18 unemployed workers from the Texas Workforce Commission and plans to hire a total of 500 from this group. An additional 200 workers will come from the state’s collaboration with the Texas State University System schools.

Two counties are working with local universities to increase their staffing. One county is also working with Texas A&M University School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics to develop a larger increase in their pool of epidemiologists. Another county is working with the University of North Texas to recruit 90 students as part-time contact tracers. One local health department is using medical students and educators to supplement staff resources.

As of August, the state reported 3,722 contact tracers working around the state. In June, the state reported about 950 contact tracers were working for the Texas Department of State Health Services, 1,250 were working for local health departments or their nonprofit and university partners, and about 600 were working for the company hired by the state.

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In May, the state health department announced a partnership with the Division of Public Health at the University of Utah to train and field 100 or more workers as contact tracers.

The state also has three case managers who follow up with positive cases and contacts to link them to resources, such as grocery shopping.

As of September, the state expanded its staff to nearly 2,000 contact tracers. It plans to hire a total of 2,000 contact tracers across the state – it currently has 1,547. In June, most of the newly hired tracers were brought on as independent contractors, adding to more than 600 government health employees who have been reassigned from their jobs. The state health department initially retrained staff, including inspectors and nurses.

One county is working toward hiring 400 contact tracers, with 160 tracers already on board.

The local health departments are leading this work, and the state health department plays a supporting role.

The National Guard is assisting with contact tracing (along with other services, such as food delivery and personal protective equipment procurement and distribution). The state health department also partnered with West Virginia University to develop an online class to train contact tracers and certify them through the Association of State and Territorial Health officials. As of July, about 250 people have completed the course. The state health department is deploying additional contact tracing staff to the counties as needed.

Local health departments are increasing contact tracing staff. A Community Protection Initiative team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was sent to Wyoming to help preserve the state’s relatively low levels of COVID-19. They will help with contact tracing and other duties.

●    GuideSafe HealthCheck, a COVID-19 assessment tool;

●    GuideSafe Exposure Notification Application; and

●    GuideSafe Event Passport, which uses HealthCheck to render an event passport for presentation at events with 10 or more participants.

For students, use of the HealthCheck function is mandatory, but use of the exposure notification function is voluntary.

After a month-long pilot with students, the state opened up the platform up to the public.

The governor approved a pilot test at the University of Arizona of Covid Watch, an anonymous exposure notification app.

The state is working with Accenture to build a system using Salesforce and Amazon Connect for case management.

In September the state launched California COVID Notify, a pilot project at UCSD and UCSF to test Google and Apple’s Exposure Notification Express mobile system, which detects if participants were near someone with COVID-19 through anonymous keys exchanged with their phones via Bluetooth. The pilot is open to students and employees at these universities. The state will review the results and decide whether to make the technology available statewide.

Previously, at least two localities had encouraged residents to use a different exposure notification app, SafePass, which also uses Bluetooth technology.

In September, the state announced a partnership with Google and Apple to provide the Google-Apple Exposure Notification Service, or EN Express, to residents. The app will notify users about any potential exposure to COVID-19.

In September, the state announced that it would implement Google and Apple’s exposure notification app, along with New York and New Jersey.

In September, the state launched an app, COVID Alert DE, that uses Bluetooth technology to alert users they have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The app operates in coordination with NY, NJ, and PA.

Contact tracers use the Merlin system, which is the state’s repository of disease case reports. It includes people who recently tested positive and can serve to automatically notify staff of individual high-priority cases.

Several counties in South Florida are using an exposure notification app, CombatCOVID, which allows users to be notified if they have come into contact with someone with COVID-19.

In August, two apps were announced:

-AlohaSafe Story uses GPS technology to log the users location, and

-AlohaSafe Alert anonymously records contacts through Bluetooth and Google Apple Exposure Notification technology.

Users of either or both apps can choose to share their data securely with Hawaii’s contact tracers if they contract COVID-19.

-A disease-reporting software;

-A common management platform; and

·-An app for use by COVID-19-positive patients and their contacts to get the services that they need. Partners in Health is advising the state.

The state passed a law in June 2020 that prohibits data collection through cellphone tracking. The law also specifies that participation in contact tracing must be voluntary.

As of August, the state began rolling out Deloitte’s GovConnect Contact Tracing and Tracking software as a comprehensive case management system for COVID-19.

In September, the state announced it would begin using the app Exposure Notifications Express, based on Apple and Google’s software framework. The app uses Bluetooth data to alert users if they come into contact with someone who has reported testing positive for COVID-19.

Salesforce is used to capture data from case investigations and contact tracing. Data from Salesforce is uploaded to MAVEN, the state disease surveillance system, on a daily basis. Testing facilities also report cases and contact info to MAVEN.

The state partnered with Deloitte to coordinate technology integration, such as an automated text messaging system that people can opt-in to after the initial call with a contact tracer.

In October, the state began pilot testing an app based on Apple and Google’s exposure notification platform using Bluetooth technology. Students at Michigan State University will take part in the pilot.

The state is also working with Deloitte and Salesforce on a statewide digital contact tracing solution.

In August the state launched COVID Trace, an opt-in contact tracing app developed by Google and Apple which allows phones to anonymously exchange information when in close contact through Bluetooth.

The state has also implemented a vendor developed Salesforce solution to support contact notification and monitoring called Granite Trace.

The state is also looking into using an opt-in contact tracing app developed by Google and Apple that would allow phones to anonymously exchange information when in close contact through Bluetooth.

In September, the state launched an exposure notification app, COVID Alert NJ, using Bluetooth proximity technology. The app is based on the platform developed by Google and Apple. NJ, NY, DE, and PA worked together as a region to ensure all COVID Alert apps work across the states.

The City of Santa Fe is encouraging residents to use a COVID-19 exposure notification app, NOVID. The app allows users to anonymously log their COVID-19 status and then uses both Bluetooth and ultrasonic technology to measure the “time-sound takes” to travel in order to sense the proximity of other NOVID-using phones. The app does not use Apple and Google’s platform.

The state is partnering with New Mexico State University on an app it has developed for use on its campus, but does not yet have plans for a statewide app.

Vital Strategies is developing smartphone apps for the state to help contact tracers find information and data, allow the public to send data to local health departments, and provide guidance to people who are in quarantine.

The state uses a database system developed by CommCare, a mobile data collection company, to track coronavirus cases and monitor contact tracing efforts.

In October, the state released an exposure notification app, COVID Alert NY, using Bluetooth technology. The app is based on technology developed by Apple and Google. The app is designed to work with similar apps in NJ, CT, PA, and DE.

In September, the state launched an exposure notification app using Bluetooth technology – SlowCOVIDNC. The app is based on Google and Apple’s Exposure Notification System and will alert users if they have been in close contact with an individual who later tests positive for COVID-19. The state is targeting marketing of the app at populations who are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19, including colleges and universities.

In September, the state announced it would launch an exposure notification app using Bluetooth technology. The app is based on the platform created by Apple and Google.

The state uses Orpheus, the state’s reportable disease database, to house information on case investigation and contacts. The state is also developing a separate COVID-19 active surveillance database that will use ARIAS.  The platform will be a secure, central database offering needed information to contact tracers, case managers, and case investigators.

In October, the state will begin pilot testing an exposure notification app using Bluetooth technology. The app is based on the platform created by Apple and Google. If the pilot is determined to be successful, it will be available statewide in December or early 2021.

COVID-19 test results are required to be electronically reported by health care providers and laboratories to Pennsylvania’s National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA-NEDSS).

In September, the state launched an app, Covid Alert PA, which uses proximity exposure technology through Bluetooth (that does not use GPS data). Users voluntarily report that they tested positive, which in turn anonymously alerts other phones that had been in a similar area for a prespecified amount of time. The state will work with Delaware, New Jersey, and New York to ensure the apps will work across state lines.

CRUSH COVID RI, an app to share information, including daily location data for up to the past 20 days, with the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH). The data are only made available to RIDOH if users opt-in to sharing. If locations emerge where multiple people tested positive in a short time frame, RIDOH will use the data to take necessary steps to close and sanitize that location. It also includes a symptom tracking survey.

The state is building a contact tracing application, SC-Safer-Together, using the Exposure Notification framework developed by Apple and Google. The Exposure Notification framework identifies other devices that are in close proximity using Bluetooth signals. If a user reports a positive test, the app alerts all others who were close by. In June, the state put the launch of this app on hold due to privacy concerns.

The state is using more than $30 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to provide testing, symptom monitoring, and notification of exposure to COVID-19 for higher-education students in all of the state’s public and private institutions.

To develop a contact tracing curriculum, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Center for Rural Health and Workforce accessed a $95,000 supplemental federal CARES Act grant, which the state matched.

About $2.1 million has been allocated to hire contact tracers.

Maricopa County put $15 million of its federal CARES Act funding toward contact tracing.

In July, Pima County health department entered into a 6-month, $10 million contact with Maximus Health Services Inc, with options to extend as needed.

Also in July, the state entered into a $20 million contract with General Dynamics Information Technology to employ 350 contact tracers.

The university contact tracing effort is supported by $5 million in federal coronavirus aid allocated by the Arkansas Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act Steering Committee.

Los Angeles County allocated $10 million to community-based organizations to help with communications, navigations, and case management and is offering a $20 gift card for full participation in the contact tracing interview process.

In August, the state announced $81.8 million in philanthropic aid, including $63 million from Kaiser Permanente, to bolster contact tracing and quarantine efforts.

A statewide public awareness campaign is funded by multiple private partners, including Jeff Skoll, The California Health Care Foundation, The California Endowment, Twitter and Facebook, who have committed a total of $5.1 million.

In September, the Skoll Foundation funded grants to six community-based organizations across California representing groups disproportionally affected by COVID-19, to improve cultural competency in contact tracing.

The federal agency for volunteering and service, the Corporation for National and Community Service CNCS, will support Colorado’s initiative by redeploying AmeriCorps members and providing nearly $2 million in federal funding for new AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associates and Senior Corps volunteers.

The state reported that it invested about $390,000 of federal funding to develop, market, and maintain the COVID Alert DE app.

In August, Maximus reported that the cost of the contract would likely increase to $65-75 million.

Palm Beach County is paying $875,600 in federal coronavirus aid to use the app, Miami-Dade will pay $775,000.

All 97 local health departments have applied for state funding support totaling $230 million to increase contact tracing.

Cook County announced in mid-June it plans to spend $40 million in federal and state funding to hire contact tracers.

Chicago awarded the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership $56 million in state and federal funds to create a COVID Contact Tracing Corps and COVID Resource Coordination Hub.

The state dedicated $60 million in federal funds for the Pandemic Health Navigator Program. In addition, the state pledged in July to provide $150 million to local health departments for contact tracing.

Indianapolis is contracting with the Indiana University School of Public Health at $10.5 million to provide contact tracing.

$112 million in CARES Act funding for additional contact tracing staffing is effective through Dec. 31, 2020.

The state has a $4.27 million contract with Deloitte to oversee the contact tracing technology.

In May the state began contracting with Louisiana State University to help ramp up contact tracing at $1 million.

In August, the state increased its estimated expenditure for contact tracing to $48 million.

Also in August, the state awarded $1.55 million to community-based organizations and tribes to increase community awareness of and participation in COVID-19 testing, case interviews, and contact tracing.

Jackson and Clay counties allocated $2.8 million and $1.5 million, respectively, from their pool of federal dollars to hire contact tracers.

The Springfield City Council approved $2,748,859 for a contract to expand contact tracing capacity with staffing and technology capabilities, with costs likely to be covered by CARES Act funding distributed by the county. In September, Springfield-Green County Health Department began contracting with Maximus.

A $3.4 million grant from the state supports a partnership between the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Southern Nevada Health Districts to hire 200 student contact tracers.

The state paid $16.3 million to the Rutgers School of Public Health to recruit, train and pay the first 1,000 members of the Community Contact Tracing Corps for a period ending Sept. 15. Another $1.9 million went to Cambridge-based Dimagi for use of the CommCare database platform the tracers use in their work.

The state will pay the Massachusetts-based company Public Consulting Group $23.5 million for a three-month contract to hire, manage and pay 1,200 contact tracers.

In July, the state announced more than $30 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be distributed to counties to enhance COVID-19 contact tracing and flu prevention. The majority of funds will be used to increase local health department staffing capacity for enhanced detection, surveillance and prevention of COVID-19.

The state announced a nearly $23 million federally funded contract with Insight Global to recruit, hire, train, and support 1,000 paid contact tracing staff.

The state contracted with NearForm Ltd., an Ireland-based software development company at $1.9 million to deploy and maintain the Covid Alert PA app.