State Approaches to Contact Tracing during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Updated February 16, 2021
Contact tracing is an essential strategy to curb the spread of COVID-19. Across the country, states have developed, deployed, and adapted their contact tracing approaches in response to the pandemic. NASHP and Mathematica partnered to develop this interactive map. Click on a state to learn about its tracing program or use the tabs on the left to compare states’ approaches.
Explore a Mathematica resource on the demographics, methodology, and implications for contact tracing, a NASHP blog, States Re-think Contact Tracing and Case Investigation Strategies as COVID-19 Cases Rise, and a Mathematica podcast, Understanding the Variation in States’ COVID-19 Contact Tracing Approaches.
Model
In-house: State/local officials lead, hiring or recruiting volunteers as needed.
Contracting: The state contracts with a company or organization for contact tracing work/hiring.
Partnering: State leads efforts but relies on partners for training/staffing.
State | Model |
AL | Partnering, the state leads with staffing support from a local university. |
AK | Partnering, with a university for training and hiring. |
AZ | Partnering, the CDC Foundation is helping with recruitment. |
AR | Partnering with General Dynamics Information Technology and Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care. |
CA | Partnering, local and state departments are leading; universities are providing training through a state contract. |
CO | Partnering, the state and local governments are leading with volunteer support combined with a partnership with a federal agency. |
CT | Partnering, the state and local health departments lead the workforce. |
DC | In-house, DC Health leads. |
DE | Partnering, the state is leading; NORC at the University of Chicago will hire and train contact tracers. |
FL | Contracting, the state leads the effort with outside assistance for staffing and a tracing platform. |
GA | Partnering. The state leads the tracing effort with outside assistance for training and technology. |
HI | Partnering. The state is managing the workforce and partnering for training. |
ID | In-house, Idaho’s seven independent health districts are responsible for hiring their own contact tracing staff. |
IL | Partnering. The state manages the workforce and partners for hiring and training. |
IN | Contracting out, contact tracing will primarily be conducted by a contractor. |
IA | Partnering with MCI for contact tracing management. |
KS | Partnering, the state is managing contact tracing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is assisting by providing some staff. |
KY | Contracting, private-sector staff will work with local health departments. |
LA | Contracting for staffing and with a university for training. |
ME | In-house. Led and implemented by the state’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
MD | Partnering, the state is leading the effort with outside help from NORC for staffing. |
MA | Contracting, the state oversees a multicomponent collaboration with local and state agencies and a nonprofit. |
MI | Partnering, the state manages the process with assistance from private companies. |
MN | Partnering for workforce and contracting for technology. |
MS | In-house, led and implemented by the Mississippi State Department of Health. |
MO | Contracting, as of January 2021, the state is contracting with nearly 40 companies to support existing contact tracing efforts. |
MT | In-house, county and tribal health departments are leading the tracing effort. |
NE | Partnering, the state is leading some of the effort while contracting some out to a third-party vendor. |
NV | Partnering, the state is contracting with organizations such as the University of Nevada – Reno and University of Nevada – Las Vegas to expand local efforts. |
NH | In-house: State/local officials lead with support from contracted staff, the University of New Hampshire, and two local health departments. |
NJ | Contracting, the state is using a private company to recruit, train, and manage contact tracers. It is also partnering with a university for training and additional staffing. |
NM | Contracting with Accenture to manage the contact tracing effort and set up a call center. |
NY | Partnering, the state is leading the effort and partnering with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Vital Strategies to create the New York State Contact Tracing Program. |
NC | Partnering, the state is contracting with organizations to build on local efforts. |
ND | Partnering, the state is managing the effort and working with Governor’s Office, Department of Human Services, National Guard, North Dakota Information Technology, the state’s chief health strategist, and the North Dakota State University disease specialist. |
OH | Partnering with Massachusetts-based nonprofit, Partners in Health to help recruit workforce and build infrastructure. |
OK | In-house, the state is leading the tracing effort with help from National Guard and universities for staffing. |
OR | In-house, the state is leading the contact tracing effort. |
PA | Partnering; the state is contracting with Insight Global to supplement state and local contact tracing staff. |
RI | Partnering, the state is leading the effort with support from the National Guard; it is contracting out the technology needs to Salesforce and Infosys. |
SC | Partnering, the state is contracting with organizations to build on local efforts |
SD | In-house, the state is managing the workforce with supplementation support from the National Guard and the University of South Dakota. |
TN | Contracting. The state has a contract in place with Xtend Healthcare to provide the majority of the contact tracing workforce in the state. |
TX | Partnering, the state is hiring a private company to and working with state universities to scale up and manage staffing. |
UT | In-house, the state is managing the workforce and contracted with a start-up to develop an app. |
VT | In-house, the state is leading the effort. |
VA | In-house, the state is leading contact tracing efforts with support from local health departments. |
WA | Partnering, local health jurisdictions lead with support from the state. The state is partnering with Mathematica, Comagine Health, and Allegis for staffing and other supports. |
WV | In-house, the state is managing the workforce with support from the National Guard for staffing and a university for training. |
WI | In-house |
WY | In-house. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is supplementing the state’s workforce. |
Centralized/Decentralized Approach
Centralized: The state health department leads contact tracing efforts.
Decentralized: Localities or counties lead efforts with some state support.
Both: State and local entities contribute staff and leadership to the effort.
State | Centralized/ Decentralized Approach |
AL | Both. The Alabama Department of Public Health conducts the tracing statewide; Mobile and Jefferson County health departments perform follow-up in their counties. |
AK | Both, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services is leading, with the local health department in Anchorage handling local cases. |
AZ | Both, the state and local health departments perform contact tracing. |
AR | Centralized, the Arkansas Department of Health leads the effort. |
CA | Decentralized, the state’s effort is county-led with state support from the California Department of Public Health. |
CO | Decentralized, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment supports local governments by supplementing staff. |
CT | Both, the Connecticut Department of Public Health and local health departments provide staff. |
DC | DC Health is leading. |
DE | Centralized, in the Delaware Division of Public Health. |
FL | Both, local health departments and the Florida Department of Health work together. |
GA | Both. The Georgia Department of Public Health and local health departments are engaged in the tracing effort. |
HI | Both. Local health departments are conducting contact tracing; Hawaii Department of Health supports the work. |
ID | Decentralized. Local health departments conduct contact tracing with support from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. |
IL | Decentralized. The Illinois Department of Public Health serves as operations manager, with all 97 local health departments and several community-based organizations conducting the contact tracing. |
IN | Centralized, the call center will take over the task for 21 local health departments across the state, scaling up to include all localities. The Indiana State Department of Health and local health departments will focus on outbreaks and work to meet the needs for those isolating or quarantining and those in high-risk settings. |
IA | Both, the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) is helping small local health departments, and larger local health departments are handling contact tracing on their own. As of February 2021, IDPH conducts contact tracing for more than two-thirds of Iowa’s counties. This number has increased as localities work on the vaccine distribution effort. |
KS | Decentralized, with state support. Local health departments are leading the contact tracing effort with support from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. |
KY | Centralized, coordinated by the Kentucky Department for Public Health. |
LA | Centralized. The Louisiana Department of Public Health manages the statewide contract. |
ME | Centralized. Led and implemented by the state’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
MD | Both, local health departments are conducting contact tracing; the Maryland Department of Health has contracted outside assistance. |
MA | Both, the Massachusetts Department of Health and local health departments work together with Partners in Health. |
MI | Both, local health departments primarily lead with support from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. |
MN | Both, Minnesota Department of Health and local and tribal health departments are engaged in contact tracing. |
MS | Centralized. The Mississippi State Department of Health leads contact tracing. |
MO | Both, as of January 2021, the state is contracting with nearly 40 companies for contact tracing and local public health agencies continue to contact trace. |
MT | Decentralized, county health departments and Indian Health Services are leading contact tracing with support from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. |
NE | Both, the Division of Public Health of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are supporting and deploying staff to local health departments. Local health department are managing roughly 40% of the contact tracing.
In May, the state selected PRC, a health care research company based in Omaha, to partner with for contact tracing. The state is also working with Nelnet and North End Teleservices to staff contact tracing positions. |
NV | Both, local health departments are leading, the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services is working to increase staffing for contact tracing. |
NH | Centralized. The state health department leads contact tracing efforts with support from two local health departments, and the University of New Hampshire. |
NJ | Centralized, contact tracing is managed by the New Jersey Department of Health in partnership with the Public Consulting Group and New Jersey Community Contact Tracing Corps. |
NM | Centralized. The New Mexico Department of Health is leading five regional contact-tracing teams statewide. |
NY | Both, local health departments conduct tracing with central support from the New York State Department of Health.
In New York City, the city’s public hospital system will lead tracing work. |
NC | Both, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is supporting and building on the efforts of local health departments. |
ND | Both, local health departments are supported by the North Dakota Department of Health. |
OH | Decentralized, local health departments are leading with support from the Ohio Department of Health. |
OK | Both, the Oklahoma State Department of Health and Cherokee Nation Public Health are leading and working in partnership with the local health departments.
Tulsa and Oklahoma Counties operate independent tracing operations. |
OR | Both, Oregon Health Authority is working with local and regional public health authorities, as well as tribes, to determine how much help they will need to meet their needs for contact tracing. |
PA | Both, some local health departments are conducting contact tracing; the majority of the state relies on the Pennsylvania Department of Health. |
RI | Centralized, the Rhode Island Department of Health is leading. |
SC | Centralized, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is leading. |
SD | Centralized, the South Dakota Department of Health is leading.
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. |
TN | Decentralized with support from the Tennessee Department of Health; the urban areas have their own contact tracing staff. |
TX | Moving toward a centralized model through the Texas Department of State Health Services. Both, the state, regional, and local public health entities are providing staff. The state provided a statewide investigation platform. |
UT | Both, the Utah Department of Health and local health departments are adding contact tracing staff. |
VT | Centralized, the Vermont Department of Health is leading. |
VA | Both, the Virginia Department of Health and local health departments are adding contact tracing staff. |
WA | Both, local health jurisdictions lead their own contact tracing efforts with support provided by the Washington Department of Health and its partners. |
WV | Both, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ Bureau for Public Health is supporting local health departments. |
WI | Both, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is aiding local health departments and centralizing training and recruitment. |
WY | Both, local health departments and the Wyoming Department of Health are working on the contact-tracing effort. |
Tracing Process
Describes initial outreach, which individuals are tracked, how contacts are defined, and what resources are provided to improve contact tracers’ work quality.
State | Tracing Process |
AL | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact. As of December, the state is prioritizing contact tracing in congregate settings because of the number of cases in the state.
Contact tracers refer people to Alabama Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, which supports and helps 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. The state recommends that schools use seating charts in classrooms and on school buses to assist with contact tracing. If a student or staff member tests positive, the nurse will use these seating charts to identify close contacts and complete the school contact tracing log. Doctors, school nurses, and principals must report positive cases to the state within four hours for contact tracing. |
AK | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Those who were in contact with someone with COVID-19 two days before symptoms emerged, or two days before the test for those who are asymptomatic, are considered contacts.
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 person with COVID-19 attended work while infectious but cannot remember who they came into close contact with. As of November, the state health department also asked people who test positive to call their own close contacts as soon as possible and asked all Alaskans to help by keeping their social circles small and keeping track of all contacts. With a bolstered workforce and decining cases, Alaska’s contact tracing system has rebounded as of January 2021. It now takes about three days between when people are tested to when they receive a call from a contact tracer. |
AZ | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. The state uses an automated monitoring and reporting system called Qualtrics to allow contacts of positive cases to report symptoms over a period of 14 days by text or email. The state partnered with LabCorp to offer a free home COVID-19 test kit to eligible contacts of positive cases.
The state recommends congregate settings maintain visitor logs to aid with contact tracing efforts. In Maricopa County, older adults who test positive and anyone living in a communal setting receive a phone call from a live contact tracer, and new cases among younger, lower-risk people are contacted via text message. Among the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona, contact tracing includes home visits. As of December, the Pima County health department requires business and government entities to report any positive cases in the workplace within 48 hours of symptom onset or the day they were tested. It also requires the business or government entity to comply with all case investigation and tracing efforts, including providing any information requested by the health department. The county is also attempting in-person contact tracing if it cannot reach cases by phone, text, or email. |
AR | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. People identified as a close contact of someone who tested positive can elect to enroll in the Situational Awareness Response Assistant Alert system, which sends an automated daily email, text message, or phone call to ask about symptoms. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact.
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. |
CA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls, texts through its Virtual Assistant, or through the CA Notify app to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact.
Contact tracers refer people to their local public health departments for more information about available resources, such as testing, medical care, housing, or other resources. |
CO | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. A contact is considered anyone within six feet of a positive case for at least 15 minutes, anyone that had direct physical contact with them, anyone that provided care to them, shared eating or drinking utensils with them, or were near them while they sneezed or coughed.
Contact tracers tell people how to get tested, how to quarantine, and link them to a COVID-19 navigator for support services access such as food, lodging, and financial help. |
CT | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via automated text messages or emails and manual phone calls to those who do not respond to the text messages or emails. Contact tracers conduct in-person visits for those who did not provide phone numbers at the testing laboratories or did not respond to the call. If a surge in infections exceeds the capacity of localities to make notifications, the software has the capability to alert new cases and close contacts through text and email-based questionnaires filled out by those who test positive.
The state uses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations and definitions for contact tracing and identifying cases. Connecticut has implemented a statewide software system called ContaCT for monitoring test results and positive cases. The 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. In September, the state established a rapid response team to address outbreaks and implement best practices in nursing homes and assisted living facilities as needed. County health departments or the Connecticut COVID Tracing Systems typically contact patients who test positive within 24 hours of their result, but patients are encouraged to reach out on their own if they do not hear back within that time frame. |
DC | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts.
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. |
DE | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Contact tracers also conduct in-person visits for people without a phone number. People are then monitored for symptoms through texts, emails, and phone calls. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 10 minutes is considered a contact.
Positive cases or confirmed contacts who need extra support to self-quarantine (that is, grocery delivery or alternative housing) will be referred to a network of local community health workers coordinated by Healthy Communities Delaware. In June, state health department employees started going out into the community in field teams to reach those with no phone number listed. The state’s COVID-19 data dashboard presents contact tracing statistics since June 27. |
FL | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts.
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. If a positive case or a symptomatic contact of a positive case is identified in a school setting, a case investigator will work with the school to conduct contact tracing. The case investigator will notify schools to ensure that positive cases and contacts do not return to school until after their isolation or quarantine period is over. |
GA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases. Phone calls or text messages are sent to contacts of positive cases. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes, starting two days before they became sick, is considered a contact.
Contact tracers assess people’s needs and connect them with a care resources coordinator to get them support to help with quarantining. The state created a Health Liaison position at the Department of Education to work with the Department of Health on school health issues. This role will include ensuring efficient and expedited testing, contact tracing, data collection, reporting, and supports for COVID-19 in school settings. The state recommends that schools participate in contact tracing efforts. Two school districts created their own contact tracing teams. When a student tests positive in these districts, the teams check seating charts, work with teachers, and watch school bus footage to identify close contacts. The districts then provide this information to the state at the end of the day to complete contact tracing. |
HI | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls, an online survey platform, or both to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone who had face-to-face contact or was within six feet of someone while they were contagious for 10 minutes or longer is considered a contact.
In July, the state released specific contact tracing guidance for positive cases and close contacts at schools and workplaces. In August, the state announced that social workers, rather than contact tracers, would offer education and resources to those required to isolate or quarantine. The state was prioritizing contact tracing for people in high-risk occupations, living in high-risk settings, or with high-risk factors. |
ID | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 10 minutes is considered a contact.
Since November, three state health districts have modified their contact tracing efforts because of a surge in COVID-19 cases. Contact tracers will still call and send letters to people who have tested positive, but they will ask people with positive cases to notify their own contacts. Contact tracers also prioritize outreach by age and risk. |
IL | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts.
Contact tracers connect people to a case investigator or support services as needed, such as getting them food, medications, and services. Contact tracers make calls in English and Spanish. The state has guidance for several settings, including workplaces, schools, places of worship, and long-term care facilities with specific contact tracing steps if an individual tests positive or has been in close contact with a confirmed case. |
IN | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via email and text to positive cases and their contacts. Those who do not reply are then called. Subsequently, people receive daily emails and texts to monitor their condition.
Cases who report living or working in a congregate setting, are flagged to the local health department, which then investigates to determine whether there is an outbreak at the facility. In August, the state launched a COVID-19 hotline for schools, to provide information and access to contact tracing toolkits. In December, Indiana’s 1,000 state-level contact tracers changed to a shorter script notifying residents about a positive COVID-19 test result and directing them to quarantine guidelines and assistance programs. Contact tracers also no longer collect detailed information on COVID-19 symptoms among “close contacts” of infected individuals, instead directing people to online resources. State contact tracers are advising individuals infected with COVID-19 to separately reach out to their close contacts and direct them to the resources on the coronavirus.in.gov website, because they’re more likely to respond to a known telephone number or text message from a friend. As of February, the state will no longer require quarantine or contact tracing for K-12 classroom exposures if the students and teachers remain at least three feet apart and are always wearing masks. |
IA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts.
Contact tracers offer to set up services, such as grocery deliveries, and share advice on how to safely social distance or quarantine. As of February 2021, the Iowa Department of Public Health conducts contact tracing for more than two-thirds of Iowa’s counties. The state will not contact schools or employers about positive cases, though localities that conduct their own contact tracing may still do this. |
KS | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to presumptive positive cases, positive cases, and their contacts. Tracers make contact once daily for 14 days after the person’s last exposure. Anyone within six feet of someone who tested positive for more than 10 minutes in the two days before they got sick is considered a contact. Contact tracers will refer people to agencies if they need additional assistance.
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. |
KY | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. People that have recently been together in-person with someone who tested positive are considered contacts.
Contact investigators will refer people who need additional resources, such as groceries, to social support coordinators. The state recommends contact tracers notify any restaurant or retail business if someone diagnosed with COVID-19 reports they visited that restaurant or retail business in the 14 days since being diagnosed and to provide additional guidance and next steps. As of November, the city of Louisville halted active contact tracing given the surge in cases statewide. |
LA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes starting from 48 hours before the person first became sick is considered a contact.
Contact tracers try to link positive cases, 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. In response to recently rising case rates, the state is prioritizing recent cases as well as those that appear in areas of the state that are more vulnerable. Congregate living facilities also perform their own contact tracing. The Louisiana Department of Health’s Contact Tracing program is using SMS text messaging to provide COVID-19-positive individuals, their contacts, and travelers to Louisiana with advice and support regarding infection, isolation and quarantine, how to protect their own health and that of others, and assistance in meeting basic needs for food, shelter and medical assistance while quarantined. The contact tracers also collect personal information from individuals through SMS text messaging about their COVID-19 symptoms, health, isolation and quarantine plans. |
ME | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and presumptive positive cases. As of November 2020, the state CDC will only investigate probable cases of COVID-19 with people who have a positive lab test. The change means they will no longer investigate symptomatic close contacts of COVID-19 cases as probable cases.
Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact. State contact tracers will connect people who need to isolate or quarantine to social support services, such as delivered meals, prescriptions, and behavioral health counseling. The state asks businesses that reopen to maintain contact information for clients and customers and the staff in case a customer or client tests positive for the virus. In September 2020, 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 partners with Community Action Program agencies to assist those 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. In November, the state announced that in response to rising cases it would no longer investigate symptomatic close contacts as probable cases. Instead, the state would only investigate those with a positive lab result. In December, the state announced that it would prioritize contact tracing only for people who are high-risk (people who are age 18 and younger, age 65 and older, hospitalized, minorities, disabled, health care workers, first responders, or employees in congregate settings) and ask low-risk individuals to perform their own contact tracing. |
MD | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. People are then monitored by text, web survey, or phone and referred to testing if needed. Contact tracers provide guidance about monitoring symptoms, isolating at home, and getting tested.
The state’s covidLINK dashboard presents contact tracing statistics. |
MA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual tracing, first with text messaging and then by telephone to positive cases, presumptive positive cases, and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 10 minutes beginning two calendar days before symptom onset is considered a contact.
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 COVID-19 cases 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. |
MI | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via texts and manual calls to presumptive positive cases, positive cases, and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes in the two days before symptoms started is considered a contact. Contact tracers will refer people to other public health teams for additional follow-up, if needed.
As numbers rise, in early December, the Michigan Department Health and Human Services asked state employees in other departments to work as contact tracers for three-month stints. Employees who volunteer must take a seven-hour training from Johns Hopkins University and also learn the state’s system. In November, in response to rising case rates, the state issued guidance to local health departments to prioritize contact tracing for confirmed cases over probable cases, workers in schools and health care facilities, and people with higher mortality and hospitalizations. The state also issued an order requiring restaurants or bars to ask patrons for their name and phone number , but it does not require the patron to comply. |
MN | As of January 2021, the state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via text message, inviting positive cases to reply with their email address, which allows them to receive a survey. The texts and surveys will be offered in multiple languages. The survey will ask the typical questions about symptoms and testing dates, and will offer resources to help with isolation and quarantine.
In August, the state released a COVID-19 toolkit with contact tracing guidelines for shelters and drop-in centers. In September, the state released contact tracing guidelines for employers. In November, the state launched a texting program to assist with contact tracing. All people who test positive will receive an automated text with a phone number that the contact tracer will be calling from. |
MS | The state has not provided detailed information about its contact tracing plan, but it works to identify people who have been near people with COVID-19.
The state considers long-term care facilities to be high-risk locations. It will investigate residents, staff, and close contacts of infected people for possible exposure. Three school districts are conducting their own contact tracing when a positive case is identified at the schools. In one district, parents are alerted by phone and letter if a student might have been in contact with a person with COVID-19. The second school district sends an alert to all families and notifies the local newspaper when a case is identified. The third school district notifies parents in case of a possible infection but does not do a districtwide announcement. |
MO | Tracing is managed in Missouri’s Advanced Contact Tracing System (MO ACTS). Through this central system, MO ACTS allows users to call, text, or email contacts and schedule, track, and visualize contact tracing efforts. All contact tracers in Missouri, including contractors, will use this system for contact outreach and tracking.
The state recommends that individuals keep track of their contacts to assist in the contact tracing process using a downloadable contact tracing worksheet. In December, multiple counties asked residents who tested positive to notify their own close contacts. Other counties began prioritizing contact tracing for cases as most risk of spreading, or prioritizing more recent positive tests, meaning some residents would not get a call at all and instead receive an information packet in the mail. The state published new guidance for schools in late November to provide local public health agencies (LPHAs) guidance on how to contact trace based on the seven-day case rate and require them to report positive tests from students to the state. 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 to provide an overview of contact tracing. |
MT | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via calls to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes in the two days before onset of symptoms is considered a contact. In some counties, case managers can deliver food, medications, and other essentials to help people safely quarantine. Earlier in the pandemic, the state performed enhanced surveillance testing in tribal communities.
In January 2021, the state legislature began contracting with Lewis and Clack counties to provide a contact tracer solely dedicated to case investigation among members of the legislature. |
NE | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and presumptive positive cases (if time and human resource capacity allow). Contact tracers notify contacts via SMS, email, phone, or letter and follow up for interviews by email or phone. After the initial call, contact tracers will monitor contacts of infected people for symptoms via daily phone calls for two weeks. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 10 minutes is considered a contact.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services recommends 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 November, the Douglas County Health Department released a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) contact tracing packet to the public. In December 2020, contact tracers started texting individuals before calling to help them make contact. The state also resumed calling close contacts of positive cases in December. |
NV | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via calls to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact. Contact tracers provide information and resources to protect the health of people who are exposed as well as others.
In response to increased case counts, in December, the state made new recommendations that contact tracers more narrowly focus their efforts to high-risk populations. The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services also sent a memo to local health authorities regarding contact tracing. Case investigators will limit the amount of information they collect from cases, shortening the survey time from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. The memo encourages case investigators to notify infected residents of their positive lab result within 24 hours, and then prioritize those who have tested positive within the last six days. The state is also working on an online questionnaire for positive individuals to complete on their own to save time. |
NH | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via phone calls to positive cases and their contacts.
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. People dining in restaurants are required to provide their name and phone number for contact tracing purposes In January 2021, the state issued guidance on contact tracing for schools. |
NJ | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach through manual calls to positive cases and their contacts.
Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes starting two days before symptoms emerged is considered a contact. Contact tracers connect those who need help with additional support, including securing living situations for those who cannot safely quarantine at home. |
NM | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts.
Beginning October 2020, restaurants are required to keep logs of at least 21 calendar days of customers for contact tracing purposes. As of November 2020, businesses can participate in surveillance testing and contact tracing to avoid a 14-day rapid response closure. Employers will select a COVID-19 coordinator responsible for working with the state’s Department of Health on contact tracing efforts in the workplace upon a confirmed COVID-19 case. Grocery stores and other essential businesses may avoid mandatory closures triggered by surges among employees if they agree to regularly test employees and help with state contact tracing efforts. |
NY | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via phone calls to positive cases and their contacts. Monitoring is conducted by text while the person with COVID-19 quarantines or self-isolates. Contact tracers connect positive cases to support and resources needed during quarantine, such as help getting groceries, household supplies, childcare, medical care, and supplies. |
NC | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls, text or email to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact.
Contact tracers connect people with supports and offer information about how to keep their family safe while staying at home. In response to increased case counts in January, local health departments are prioritizing cases using a last-in first-out approach so that newest cases are interviewed first. They are also prioritizing contacts linked to congregate living setting, health care settings, and those that are associated with outbreaks and clusters. |
ND | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. |
OH | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts who were within six feet of them for at least 15 minutes. Contract tracers may contact individuals in-person if they are unable to reach them by phone.
The Ohio Department of Health is updating its system to allow local health departments to enter information about where an infected person was in contact with people prior to their positive test. The state is adopting a “backward” contact tracing approach, in an attempt to identify the source of each case instead of only identifying close contacts to prevent future spread. |
OK | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. In July 2020, the state began texting close contacts of positive cases. The text prompts the person to fill out a questionnaire and receive quarantine-related messages; they may also be contacted by phone. Text recipients have the option of being contacted with a phone call.
Contact tracers provide education and information to individuals explaining how to separate themselves from others and connect them to services they might need. Potentially exposed individuals are asked to self-isolate and asked what services they might need. In December 2020, the state was advising most individuals who test positive to notify their own close contacts. |
OR | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Contact tracers then conduct daily check-ins through phone, text, or email to monitor people’s symptoms.
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. In some counties, including Multnomah, new tracing protocols are designed so that contacts of positive cases may only know of their potential exposure if informed by the positive case themselves. |
PA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via phone calls to positive cases and their contacts.
Community health nurses provide information describing how to isolate, asymptomatic transmission, and how to monitor symptoms. Contact tracers notify individuals who may have been exposed in congregate settings, and follow up with the respective facilities where congregation took place. Contact tracers are also playing a large role in educating individuals. The state has prioritized contact tracing to populations considered most vulnerable and cases that could lead to greater community spread. In December 2020, the state started a new digital contact tracing system called Connect and Protect that directs individuals between ages 19 and 64 who test positive to fill out an online contact tracing questionnaire. Since January 2021, contact tracing at long-term care facilities, which was previously conducted by a health systems partnership called the Regional Response Health Collaborative (RRHC) Program, has been conducted by individual county health departments. |
RI | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via phone calls to positive individuals and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for a prolonged period is considered a contact. Contact tracers provide information to positive individuals and contacts detailing how to isolate and protect those around them.
As of January 2021, the Rhode Island Department of Health launched a text-based contact tracing system enabling residents to fill out an online form, providing contact information for close contacts. The system will automatically text the list of people, informing them they must self-quarantine. The system is not designed to replace human contact tracers but to supplement the contact tracing work. |
SC | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts.
Contact tracers refer positive cases and contacts to supportive services, including medical and social services. As of January 2021, in response to increased case counts, the Department of Health and Environmental Control has transitioned from a “containment” to a “mitigation” approach. Contact tracers will now focus exclusively on household contacts exposed to the virus in the past six days and people located in places where a spread has been possible. 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. |
SD | As of November 2020, the state used text messaging or email to conduct initial contact tracing outreach. These messages ask contacts to log onto a secure online portal where they can provide additional information. Contacts receive daily texts asking about symptoms if they enroll in the text message system. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact.
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. |
TN | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach through manual calls to positive cases, presumptive positive cases, and contacts of positive cases. The state’s contract with Xtend Healthcare defines a contact as someone who was within six feet of a confirmed case of COVID-19 for more than 10 minutes. Contact tracers explain quarantine guidance and answer questions.
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. 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 then recommends ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the school. In February 2021, Shelby County Health Department launched case notification through text messaging. Its staff texts anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 with a link to an online case investigation/contact tracing questionnaire. |
TX | Contact tracing begins at the local level but may be assigned to a regional or state entity depending on workload capacity or for follow-up.
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. 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. |
UT | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls, text messages, or emails to positive cases and their contacts. Contact tracers then conduct active monitoring via daily calls or texts.
As of December 2020, some health departments were prioritizing positive cases and asking those individuals to reach out to their contacts and ask them to quarantine and be tested. In December 2020, the state began sending automated text messages and emails to positive cases and contacts of positive cases who do not answer an initial phone call from contact tracers. The text message or email includes a link to a secure form where the person can provide contact tracing information electronically. If an employee tests positive, the state 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. |
VT | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Contact tracers give health guidance and recommendations for self-isolation and other restrictions.
Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact. The state also asks for contacts starting 14 days before someone began showing symptoms. Starting in December 2020, contacts may receive a text message prior to receiving a call. The state relies on a rapid response team, made up of Health Department staff and state partners, 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 support schools with contact tracing. School administrators will be asked to communicate with teachers, staff, and families to provide quarantine guidance. The state also posts a list of confirmed school-based cases and transmissions on a weekly basis. In November, the state began requiring restaurants and businesses who host non-essential activities to maintain a 30-day log of employee and guest names and contact information for contact tracing. The state requires all residents to comply with these contact tracing requests. |
VA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. In December 2020, the state adopted new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance around contact tracing prioritization to help deal with a surge in cases. The state will prioritize recently diagnosed individuals and their household members, people living or working in congregate living facilities, people in known clusters or outbreaks, and people at increased risk of severe illness.
In January 2021, the state began notifying positive cases via a series of automated text messages. The texts will include a link to the new COVIDWISE Verification Code Portal to allow those who have tested positive to submit their results to the COVIDWISE app for exposure notification. The messages will be available in English or Spanish. The state conducts symptom monitoring through text or email using Sara Alert. The contact tracer will provide education, information, and support to help those who might have been exposed. Multiple universities have taken on active roles in contact tracing for their respective campuses. The University of Virginia partnered with its local health district to fund seven new positions for contact tracing on campus, Virginia Commonwealth University has hired 13 contact tracers, and Virginia Tech has implemented a Case Management Team to assist with contact tracing and coordinating quarantining and isolation on campus. 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. |
WA | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls or text messages to positive individuals and their contacts. If no one answers, contact tracers provide a call back phone number. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes is considered a contact.
Contact tracers inform people of prevention measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. |
WV | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 10 minutes is considered a contact. |
WI | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive individuals and their contacts.
Anyone who had direct physical contact with the person, was within six feet of the person for more than 15 minutes, had contact with the person’s respiratory secretions, or stayed overnight for at least one night in a household with the person who tested positive for COVID-19 is considered a contact. Contact tracers offer recommendations for quarantining and sign people up for self-monitoring. They can also connect people with isolation facilities. |
WY | The state conducts initial contact tracing outreach via manual calls to positive cases and their contacts. Anyone within six feet of a person with COVID-19 for at least 10 minutes during the two days before symptoms emerged is considered a contact.
Restaurants and bars must maintain logs of employees’ working hours by date and time to help with contact tracing when needed. Childcare centers that have either a staff member or a child test positive will be immediately shut down until contact tracing can be implemented. As of November 2020, public health officials will only contact known cases of COVID-19. This approach is supported by the Wyoming Technology Coronavirus Coalition’s Contact Tracing at Home initiative. |
Program Adjustments for Case Spikes
Describes how states are adjusting their programs to increasing caseloads through contact tracing prioritization, partnerships, and workforce increases.
State | Program Adjustments for Case Spikes |
AL | As of December 2020, the state is prioritizing contact tracing in congregate settings because of the number of cases in the state overall. |
AK | In November 2020, state health officials asked Alaskans who test positive for COVID-19 to notify their own close contacts because of the number of cases in the state.
In December 2020, Anchorage began requiring establishments serving the public to keep customer or client contact information in case it was needed for contact tracing. Businesses are required to communicate to employees and the health department any known COVID-19 exposures. With a bolstered workforce and reducing cases, Alaska’s contact tracing system has rebounded as of January 2021. It now takes about three days between when individuals are tested and they receive a call from a contact tracer. |
AZ | As of December, the Pima County health department requires business and government entities to report any positive cases in the workplace within 48 hours of symptom onset or the day they were tested. It also requires the business or government entity to comply with all case investigation and tracing efforts, including providing any information requested by the health department. |
AR | In November, the state announced contract tracers would no longer conduct contact tracing on those who were tested more than six days earlier. |
CA | |
CO | On Nov. 10, 2020, in response to the state’s rising case rate, the state’s Department of Public Health & Environment announced that it will onboard 100 new AmeriCorps members to serve on the state’s COVID Containment Response Corps for staggered nine-month terms. |
CT | |
DC | |
DE | Last November, amid increasing cases, the state health department said that if contacts are not reached for two weeks after exposure, the department may never contact them because isolation and quarantine strategies would no longer be meaningful. The state also shortened it’s interviews and hired additional staff. |
FL | Because of the surge in cases, five mayors are asking the governor to improve statewide mitigation standards, including increasing contact tracing and implementing use of a statewide COVID-19 notification app developed by Apple and Google. |
GA | With a surge in COVID-19 cases in Georgia, the contact tracers have had to streamline their process, because they can’t reach everyone. The contact tracers are focusing on prisons, schools, law enforcement facilities, medical facilities, and other workplaces. |
HI | In August, the state was prioritizing contact tracing for people in high-risk occupations, living in high-risk settings, or with high-risk factors. |
ID | Since November, three state health districts have modified their contact tracing efforts because of a surge in COVID-19 cases. Contact tracers will still call and send letters to people who have tested positive, but they will ask people with positive cases to notify their own contacts. Contact tracers also prioritize outreach by age and risk. |
IL | State health officials have launched a campaign, commercials, and radio ads to raise awareness about contact tracing in response to the state’s second surge. |
IN | In December, Indiana’s 1,000 state-level contact tracers changed to a shorter script notifying residents about a positive COVID-19 test result and directing them to quarantine guidelines and assistance programs. The state also began using a system to allow those who tested positive for COVID-19 to complete contact tracing online.
Contact tracers also no longer collect detailed information on COVID-19 symptoms among “close contacts” of infected individuals, instead directing people to online resources. State contact tracers are advising individuals infected with COVID-19 to separately reach out to their close contacts and direct them to the resources on the coronavirus.in.gov website, because they’re more likely to respond to a known telephone number or text message from a friend. In January, the state announced it would redirect some contact tracing staff to the vaccination effort, and will text non-household contacts of positive cases rather than calling them. |
IA | Because of an increase in cases, in November, the state awarded an emergency $2.3 million contact tracing contract to MCI to provide 200 contact tracers. |
KS | |
KY | As of December, some local health departments that cover red-zone counties have started prioritizing contact tracing because of resource constraints; the Lincoln Trail District Health Department only contacts positive cases and family and close contacts of positive cases. Barren River Health Department prioritizes health care workers and people who congregate in nursing homes.
As of November, the city of Louisville halted active contact tracing given the surge in cases statewide. |
LA | In response to recently rising case rates, the state is prioritizing recent cases as well as those that appear in areas of the state that are more vulnerable. Congregate living facilities also perform their own contact tracing. |
ME | In December, the state announced that it would prioritize contact tracing only for people who are high-risk (people who are age 18 and younger, age 65 and older, hospitalized, minorities, disabled, health care workers, first responders, or employees in congregate settings).
The state also announced in November that in response to rising case rates, it would no longer investigate symptomatic close contacts as probable cases. Instead, the state would only investigate those with a positive lab result. Because of the rapid uptick in cases, the state will also ask low-risk people to perform their own contact tracing. In addition, the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make only one contact with an infected individual (instead of checking in with them periodically) to provide guidance. |
MD | In mid-November 2020, the state temporarily revised contact tracing scripts to ask fewer questions in an effort to keep up with increasing cases. |
MA | |
MI | In December, the Michigan Department Health and Human Services asked state employees in other departments to work as contact tracers for three-month stints. Employees who volunteer must take a seven-hour training from Johns Hopkins University and also learn the state’s system.
In November, in response to rising case rates, the state issued guidance to local health departments to prioritize contact tracing for confirmed cases over probable cases, workers in schools and health care facilities, and people with higher mortality and hospitalizations. The state also issued an order requiring restaurants or bars to ask patrons for their name and phone number , but it does not require the patron to comply. |
MN | Because of the recent uptick in cases in November 2020, some local health departments suspended individual contact tracing and encouraged people who test positive to inform close contacts. |
MS | |
MO | In December, multiple counties asked residents who tested positive to notify their own close contacts. Other counties began prioritizing contact tracing for cases as most risk of spreading, or prioritizing more recent positive tests, meaning some residents would not get a call at all and instead would just receive an information packet in the mail.
The state published new guidance for schools in late November to provide local public health agencies (LPHAs) guidance on how to contact trace based on the seven-day case rate and require LPHAs to report any positive tests from students to the state. |
MT | |
NE | In December 2020, contact tracers started texting individuals before calling to help them make contact. The state also resumed calling close contacts of positive cases in December. |
NV | In response to increased case counts in December, the state made new recommendations that contact tracers more narrowly focus their efforts on high-risk populations. The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services also sent a memo to local health authorities regarding contact tracing. Case investigators will limit the amount of information they collect from cases, shortening the survey time from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. The memo encourages case investigators to notify infected residents of their positive lab result within 24 hours, and then prioritize those who have tested positive within the last six days. The state is also working on an online questionnaire for positive individuals to complete on their own to save time. |
NH | |
NJ | |
NM | Grocery stores and other essential businesses may avoid mandatory closures triggered by surges among employees if they agree to regularly test employees and help with state contact tracing efforts. |
NY | |
NC | In response to increased case counts in January 2021, local health departments are prioritizing cases using a last-in, first-out approach so that newest cases are interviewed first. They are also prioritizing contacts linked to congregate living setting, health care settings, and those that are associated with outbreaks and clusters. |
ND | |
OH | |
OK | In December 2020, the state was advising most individuals who test positive to notify their own close contacts. |
OR | In some counties, such as Multnomah, new tracing protocols mean that contacts of positive cases may only know of their potential exposure if informed by the infected individual. |
PA | The state has prioritized contact tracing to populations considered most vulnerable and cases that could lead to greater community spread.
In December 2020, the state started a new digital contact tracing system called Connect and Protect that directs individuals between ages 19 and 64 who test positive to fill out an online contact tracing questionnaire. |
RI | |
SC | As of January 2021, in response to increased case counts, the Department of Health and Environmental Control has transitioned from a “containment” to a “mitigation” approach. Contact tracers now focus exclusively on household contacts exposed to the virus in the past six days and people located in places where spread has been possible. |
SD | |
TN | The Metro Public Health Department replaced 50 contact tracers with an automated messaging platform called Teletask, saying they will leverage the savings to add staff to the county’s COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. |
TX | |
UT | As of December 2020, some health departments are prioritizing positive cases and asking those cases to reach out to their contacts and ask them to quarantine and be tested. |
VT | |
VA | In December 2020, the state adopted new CDC guidance around contact tracing prioritization to help deal with a surge in cases. The state will prioritize recently diagnosed individuals and their household members, people living or working in congregate living facilities, people in known clusters or outbreaks, and people at increased risk of severe illness. |
WA | |
WV | |
WI | |
WY | As of November 2020, public health officials will only contact known cases of COVID-19, and will no longer attempt to notify close contacts. This approach is supported by the Wyoming Technology Coronavirus Coalition’s Contact Tracing at Home initiative. |
Workforce and Training
Describes how the state ramps up its workforce through partnerships, direct hiring, or recruiting volunteers. It also details contact tracer training.
State | Workforce and Training |
AL | This state currently has 404 contact tracers. These tracers include Department of Health employees and 72 undergraduate, graduate, and medical students through a contract with the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. |
AK | As of January 2021, The statewide workforce consists of over 400 people available to work on contact tracing, up from about 70.
In addition to health department staff, partners contributing staff include the Anchorage Health Department, school districts, nonprofits, tribal health organizations, a hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Arctic Investigations Program, the Alaska National Guard, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Center for Rural Health and Workforce, and AM Trace, a public health firm. A partnership with the University of Alaska Anchorage’s College of Health added training capacity, and new partnerships with community health centers and a workforce and technology company, Rose International, Inc. will expand the contact tracing workforce. |
AZ | In December, the state reported having cross-trained about 600 agency employees and employees of contractors for contact tracing. The state also works with the University of Arizona’s Student Aid for Field Epidemiology Response (SAFER) team for contact tracing. SAFER employs 45 contact tracers and has a team of more than 300 volunteers.
The state is training state employees and working with statewide university partners to use faculty, staff, and students in public health, medicine, nursing, and social work programs. The state is also partnering with the federal CDC Foundation for recruiting and assigning new employees to staff up to 40 teams of public health investigators, which can be deployed statewide. In mid-June, the governor 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. |
AR | In December 2020, the state had about 840 contact tracers. The state contracts with two partners, General Dynamics and Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, to hire contact tracers. The state works with medical and public health schools and nonprofit organizations to recruit volunteers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigators are expected to assist the state. Thirty members of the National Guard are also assisting the state with contact tracing.
Last 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. At the end of 2020, this work shifted back to the state health department due to funding. |
CA | As of October, the state had nearly 12,000 contact tracers and a reserve staff of more than 600. The state’s program, California Connected, is working to ready 10,000 tracers with a goal of 20,000. More than 90 state departments are allocating 5% of staff to the contact tracing team. The state has paid and volunteer contact tracers, including California Health Corps, California Conservation Corps, CalVolunteers, and AmericaCorps staff. San Francisco is retraining city employees to perform tracing, including librarians, staff from the health department and city attorney’s office, and medical students.
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 people 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. |
CO | As of December 2020, the state reported 1,120 contact tracers and an additional 63 reserve staff.
The state maintains a contact tracing team to support local governments and partner organizations who hire and manage their own teams. Local governments have retrained public workers (including morgue workers trained in El Paso County; police in Denver). In August 2020, the state had hired more than 800 AmeriCorps and Senior Corps members who will support the state’s COVID-19 response, including contact tracing. On Nov. 10, 2020, in response to the state’s rising case rate, the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment announced that it will onboard 100 new AmeriCorps members to serve on the state’s COVID Containment Response Corps for staggered nine-month terms. As of February 2021, the partnership had employed around 400 contact tracers. A volunteer group of public health professionals, the Colorado Public Health Workforce Collaborative, provides 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, monitoring the rollout, and facilitating complementary COVID-19 containment activities. |
CT | As of October 2020, the state had hired or volunteered 860 contact tracers and 63 reserve staff.
Across the state more than 100 college students from various schools join public health staff and volunteers to make up the state’s team of contact tracers. In August 2020, the state announced a partnership with the Community Emergency Response Teams to recruit volunteers. The state also announced plans to fund five community organizations to provide outreach related to COVID-19. Local health authorities also plan to hire community health workers. These plans are designed to build trust in communities with the contact tracing process. |
DC | In December, the DC Contact Trace Force totaled 530 contact tracers and an addition 54 reserve staff, up from an initial 65. |
DE | As of October 2020, the state had 182 contact tracers. In November the stated hired 30-80 more contact tracing staff.
In May, the state announced it would partner with NORC at the University of Chicago to hire and train contact tracers and scale up technology. |
FL | In October, the state reported a total of 4,400 people involved in contact tracing, including 2,600 employees and 1,800 contracted workers.
In May, the state reported that more than 1,000 people, including students, epidemiologists, and other staff from across the state health department, were engaged in contact tracing. Later that month, the state hired a third-party call center, Maximus, to bolster the state’s contact tracing workforce by supplying 600 additional contact tracers. The state has three contracts with Maximus worth a total of $70 million, and employs at least 4,400 tracers. |
GA | As of January 2021, the state has a contact tracing/case investigator workforce of about 1,500, up from around 1,000 since summer.
In addition to the 250 contact tracers the state had before COVID-19, the state plans to hire up to 750 additional tracers, including student interns from medical and public health colleges. Together with the CDC Foundation, the state hired a deployment coordinator and a training and learning coordinator to oversee the training and deployment of contact tracers and work with the 18 public health districts to ensure operational issues, staffing needs, and performance metrics are met. |
HI | In February 2021, the state still has nearly 300 individuals working on contact tracing.
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, and the Kaua’i Police Department. As of mid-October, roughly 32 National Guard members have also been trained to serve as contact tracers. The state health department also formed a Pacific Islander priority investigations and outreach team to help with contact tracing, prioritizing linguistic skills, cultural knowledge and community recommendations when choosing staff. The Department of Public Safety is working with the state on contact tracing after an employee at the Waiawa Correctional Facility tested positive. |
ID | As of December 2020, the state reported having 156 contact tracers under contract, many of whom performed contact-tracing part-time.
Some local health departments have reassigned staff, and others hired temporary staff or are receiving help from the National Guard, nursing students, or volunteers. |
IL | In November, the state reported it had more than 3,300 contact tracers statewide.
The state’s goal is to employ 3,800 contact tracers, in addition to those already working for state and county health departments. The state announced the COVID-19 Pandemic Health Navigator Program, a grant opportunity for regional coordinators, to use 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 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. 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. As of December, the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership hired about 500 people to conduct community-level contact tracing efforts. Employees will be hired for 18 months. The Workforce Partnership will be 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. |
IN | As of December, the state reported 1,300 contact tracers.
Starting in May, the state shifted contact tracing from state and local health departments to a private company, Maximus, that will staff a call center to reach out to people who have tested positive, interview them, and notify their contacts. Close contacts will receive daily texts to monitor them for symptoms. Public health students and epidemiologists at the state health department will assist the contact tracers, if needed. 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 the city of Indianapolis to hire, train, and manage more than 300 contact tracers through Dec. 31, 2020. |
IA | In December, the state reported there were 325 contact tracers statewide.
Many of the state’s contact tracers are helping rural counties with small public health departments. Larger counties are handling much of the work themselves. |
KS | In October, the state reported having 100 contact tracers.
Local health departments are leading contact tracing. Many are retraining staff, but others are hiring new staff. State officials are assembling a 400-volunteer contact tracing force to assist counties. The state will monitor virus hot spots throughout the state and fill gaps at local health departments. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees are also being deployed to counties. |
KY | As of December, the state reported having 1,600 contact tracers.
University of Louisville students, trained through the Johns Hopkins University online contact tracing course, are also involved with state and city contact tracing. As of December, the Louisville Metro Health Department had 250 contact tracers. 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. |
LA | As of December 2020, the state reported 729 contact tracers with an additional 100 reserve staff.
The state contracted with Accenture and Salesforce to manage the contact tracing process and create an electronic contact tracing platform. The state uses four Louisiana-based call centers and two hiring agencies. The training for these contact tracers will be managed by Louisiana State University. |
ME | As of December 2020, Maine had 145 staff and 60 reserve staff for contact tracing.
Since November, the state redeployed 20 staff members familiar with contact tracing, to handle the increased case load of the winter season. |
MD | The state had 1,525 tracers in its covidLINK program as of December 2020. Some work at local health departments, and others work at a call center run by an independent institution at the University of Chicago, NORC.
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. |
MA | As of December, the state had 3,307 people working on contact tracing efforts. The state partnered with the nonprofit Partners in Health to create the COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative. Partners in Health manages a virtual support center that will include 1,000 people, hired and trained by the nonprofit. Student volunteers from schools of public health from the state’s colleges and universities are also participating. The state health department maintains the data and oversees the processes. |
MI | As of December 2020, the state had 1,250 contact tracers and 500 reserve staff or volunteers.
Rock Connections will manage volunteers and Deloitte will manage technology for the tracing program. |
MN | As of December 2020, the state had 1,993 contact tracers and 300 reserve staff.
Rose International is giving support and hiring staff on behalf of the Minnesota Department of Health. |
MS | In December, the state had 300 contact tracers.
At least one health system has assisted with contact tracing. |
MO | Several state contractors will recruit and train contact tracers. The state has contracted with Maximus, a company that currently provides contact tracing in other states. The state also contracted with Equus to provide contact tracing in 30 western Missouri counties.
As of December 2020, the state’s health department had redeployed 235 staff members, who normally work on other public health initiatives, to help with contact tracing. Fifty-person teams of Department of Health and Senior Services employees have also been trained to assist with contact tracing. All contact tracers will be trained in Missouri’s Advanced Contact Tracing System, a central system that manages tracing and investigations. |
MT | In October 2020, Montana reported it had enough public health workers and reserve staff to meet the need for contact tracing (200 staff and over 2,600 reserve staff).
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. The Montana Public Health Training Center and Montana Department of Public Health and Human Resources is offering a Montana Public Health Contact Tracing Certificate course tailored specifically to the state of Montana. Those that obtain a certificate are eligible to volunteer with the state for pay. As of January 2021, almost 300 people have completed the course. |
NE | As of December 2020, the state had 1,275 contact tracers. |
NV | As of December 2020, the state has about 600 contact tracers, many of whom are students in the Nevada System of Higher Education.
The Washoe County Health District has taken over the contact tracing work from the state and has partnered with the University of Nevada – Reno to handle the new work. |
NH | As of December 2020, New Hampshire had 158 contact tracers.
The contact tracing operation was initially staffed by the state health department’s Bureau of Infectious Disease Control. Over time, additional staff from across the agency provided surge capacity. |
NJ | As of January 2021, more than 3,500 contact tracers were working in the state, including local health department staff and newly trained contact tracers.
The state is also building a Community Contact Tracing Corps through a two-stage approach. For step one, the state will partner with the state’s higher education institutions to train public health graduate students and alumna. For step two, the state contracted with Public Consulting Group (PCG) to recruit, train, and manage additional tracers deployed to areas with increasing COVID-19 cases. Staff recruited by PCG are required to complete the contact tracing training developed with Rutgers School of Public Health |
NM | As of October 2020, the state had 300 contact tracers.
The state also contracted with Accenture Healthcare Services to set up a call center. |
NY | As of December 2020, the state reported having 2,000 contact tracers.
Bloomberg Philanthropies helps the state health department recruit potential contact tracers for the program. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health developed an online curriculum. The nonprofit Vital Strategies provides technical and operational advising. |
NC | As of February 2021, there were over 2,000 full-time and part-time staff supporting contact tracing efforts at the local level, including 1,624 Community Care of North Carolina contact tracers.
In April 2020, the state health department launched the Carolina Community Tracing Collaborative, partnering with Community Care of North Carolina and the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers. These organizations will work with the nonprofit Partners in Health to coordinate with and build on contact tracing workforce in the local health departments. The state plans to recruit those who are unemployed, have community engagement experience, and live in the communities that they will serve. 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 train volunteers and other staff as contact tracers or case investigators. |
ND | As of December 2020, the state has about 470 contact tracers from the Department of Health, University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, and local public health units.
Contact tracers also include some public health graduate students who are receiving course credit and volunteers of the Medical Reserve Corps. The nonprofit Lutheran Social Services is assisting with contact tracing efforts for people who speak English as a second language. |
OH | As of December 2020, the state had 3,824 contact tracers.
The state partnered with Partners in Health, to increase its contact tracing workforce. The state’s existing force of contact tracers is about 700 workers in the state’s 113 local health departments in a three-tiered staffing plan. College students and faculty members are part of the state’s volunteer pool called the Public Health Assist Team, which local health departments can tap into for COVID-related needs. Contact tracers are now also helping set up vaccine appointments. |
OK | In November 2020, the state had about 700 contact tracers.
Members of the Oklahoma National Guard were trained in contact tracing, and the state also partnered with universities and Cherokee Nation Public Health for contact tracing staff. |
OR | As of December 2020, the state had 2,256 contact tracers.
The Oregon COVID-19 Contact Collaborative is a joint contact tracing effort with Oregon Health Authority, local health authorities, health districts, tribal authorities and community-based organizations (including advocacy and community health worker groups). |
PA | As of December 2020, the state had 1,675 contact tracers.
The state created the Commonwealth Civilian Coronavirus Corps, which bolsters local and community contact tracing efforts. Regional consortiums will assess the number of contact tracers needed in each area of the state, as well as recruit more staff and coordinate efforts accordingly. |
RI | The state is currently carrying out its contact tracing efforts in partnership with the National Guard and using a platform created by SalesForce. Pharmacy and medical students are also involved.
As of December 2020, the state had about 400 contact tracers. As of October, the state had 80 contact tracers dedicated to schools grades K-12. |
SC | As of February 2021, 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. In total, 600 contact monitors have been trained to date and will be deployed as needed. Contact tracers are trained by Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials – two nonprofit organizations that have offered trainings at no charge during the pandemic. |
SD | As of November, the state has trained 369 contact tracers. The state previously expanded its contact tracing workforce by reassigning staff from the health department and other agencies and partnering with the National Guard.
In September 2020, 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. |
TN | In December 2020, the state reported having 1,800 contact tracers. About 900 of those are provided through an Xtend Healthcare contract. Other employees were brought on through Medasource to help with contact tracing and case investigation.
The Metro Public Health Department replaced 50 contact tracers with an automated messaging platform called Teletask, indicating it plans to leverage the savings to add staff to the county’s COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. |
TX | As of October 2020, the state reported having 3,533 contact tracers. The state also works with university partners to replace and increase staff as needed.
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. 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 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. |
UT | As of December 2020, the state reported 607 contact tracers across the state.
As of November, the University of Utah had deployed 200 contact tracers to the state through a partnership agreement to train and field contact tracers. |
VT | As of February 2021, the state had 82 full-time contact tracing staff.
The state also has three case managers who follow up with positive cases and contacts to link them to resources, such as grocery shopping. The governor established the Vermont Enhanced Testing and Tracing Task Forces that include experts from the Department of Health and agencies affiliated with the Human Services and Digital Services, to monitor technological and workforce needs going forward. In January, the state began accepting bids for a contract to provide up to 75 full-time contact tracers beginning in March 2021. The state would provide training to these staff and continue to lead the contact tracing effort. |
VA | In December 2020, the state had 4,491 contact tracers. |
WA | As of December 2020, the state had 374 contact tracers on duty or in training, including state employees, National Guard soldiers, and remote contractors. The state plans to ramp up to have 700 case investigators in its centralized surge pool.
As of February 2021, King County reported having 73 contact tracers on staff in their local health jurisdiction. |
WV | As of December 2020, the state had 370 contact tracers.
The National Guard assists 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. |
WI | As of December 2020, the state has 380 contact tracers. The state created a State Emergency Operations Center to organize and train contact tracers and coordinate volunteers from the Emergency Assistance Volunteer Registry. |
WY | While the state has largely ceased following up with close contacts, about 24 Teton County Health Department employees and volunteers continue to conduct contact tracing. |
Technology
Describes each state’s approach to contact tracing technology, including mobile phone applications, social media, or online symptom tracking.
State | Technology |
AL | In August 2020, the state launched a contact tracing app – aimed at students returning to the state’s university campuses – that uses Bluetooth location technology designed by Apple and Google. The app was developed by the Birmingham-based tech company MotionMobs in collaboration with the state health department and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This technology is part of GuideSafe, a multi-tool platform comprising three key components:
– 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 GuideSafe Exposure Notification App to the general public. As of December, 190,000 people had downloaded the app. At the end of November, the GuideSafe app joined the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server, which allows Guidesafe to download keys from other exposure notification apps that are on the server. |
AK | Contact tracers use social media, use an airplane seating tool, or get help from businesses. In August, the state launched the DiMagi/CommCare application to manage information for COVID-19 cases and contacts, coordinate work, and measure and improve contact tracing efforts. |
AZ | The state is implementing a secure, automatic symptom monitoring and reporting system, Situational Awareness Response Assistant Alert, that enables contacts to report symptoms daily by phone, text, or online.
Contacts of positive cases use an automated monitoring and reporting system called Qualtrics to report symptoms over a 14-day period by text or email. The governor approved a pilot test of Covid Watch, an anonymous exposure notification app, at the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University as part of a phased rollout. The app uses Bluetooth technology developed by Apple and Google to log Bluetooth signals of other nearby users. |
AR | The state uses the Situational Awareness Response Assistant (SARA) Alert system for case management. This system flags cases with reported symptoms for follow-up by Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) staff. ADH also uses the SARA Alert system to identify specific areas to target for testing and to provide information to support the state’s decision making. |
CA | The state uses an app developed by Dimagi to manage contacts and texts for people to report symptoms.
The state is working with Accenture to launch a system using Salesforce and Amazon Connect for case management. After piloting Google and Apple’s Exposure Notification Express mobile system with a limited population, the state launched CA Notify in December. The app detects whether participants were near someone with COVID-19 via Bluetooth. The state estimated that 4 million people had activated the app in December. The CA Notify app is part of the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server, which allows it to download keys from other exposure notification apps that are on the server. Previously, at least two localities had encouraged residents to use a different exposure notification app, SafePass, which also uses Bluetooth technology. |
CO | The state launched an online symptom tracker.
On Oct. 25, 2020, the state’s public health department launched a mobile service application to residents in partnership with Google and Apple called CO Exposure Notifications. The app uses Bluetooth to sense whether a user’s device has been within six feet of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more in one day. The app also sends instructions on how users can isolate, how they can call people who they might have exposed, and other prevention strategies. As of December 2020, 1.4 million people had downloaded the app. The state is a participant in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server. The state’s exposure notification app can download the keys or codes of any other state’s exposure notification app if they are both participating. |
CT | ContaCT, the statewide voluntary and confidential software system, automates some steps in the contact tracing process. Surveys are sent by email or text daily to people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and to people who were exposed and might be at risk of developing COVID-19. The tool also assesses unmet needs, such as access to food, housing, or health care, to connect people who are being asked to isolate with the resources they require to successfully do it.
On Nov. 12, 2020, the state launched Google and Apple’s exposure notification app, COVID Alert CT. The app uses Bluetooth to sense whether a user’s device has been within six feet of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more in one day. If a user tests positive, a contact tracer (working for a state, local health department, or higher education institution) will manually ask the case to share the “close contact” codes their app has logged while they had been contagious. If the user agrees, those who met the close contact criteria for the app will receive an alert notifying them that they were a close contact of an anonymous case. For close contacts to be identified and contacted in this way, they must have the app downloaded. As of January 2021, the app had been activated on 1 million mobile devices. The state is a participant in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server. The state’s exposure notification app can download the keys or codes of any other state’s exposure notification app if they are both participating. |
DC | In late September, DC rolled out an app based on Exposure Notification Express created by Apple and Google, in coordination with several other states. The app allows users to receive notifications if they’ve been exposed to another user who tests positive for COVID-19. As of February 2021, about 630,000 residents were using the app.
DC is a participant in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server. DC’s exposure notification app can download the keys or codes of any other state’s exposure notification app if they are both participating. |
DE | The state will work with NORC’s technology partner, Enovational, and the Delaware Health Information Network to build a platform that enables the state health department to share data with contact tracers and Maryland.
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 several other states. In December, the app had been downloaded 78,000 times. The state is a participant in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server. The state’s exposure notification app can download the keys or codes of any other state’s exposure notification app if they are both participating. |
FL | 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 high-priority cases.
Several counties in South Florida use an exposure notification app, CombatCOVID, which notifies users if they have come into contact with someone who has COVID-19. |
GA | Tracers contact people who have been exposed to COVID-19 and ask them to log their symptoms into an online monitoring platform. The platform was developed for the state by the technology services company MTX Group, using Google Cloud data.
Georgia Tech uses the NOVID exposure notification app. The app uses Bluetooth and sound waves to detect distance between two phones using the app and logs the anonymous codes of phones that are within six feet for more than 15 minutes. The app is voluntary for students, faculty, and staff on campus. |
HI | The state uses new technology to enable contact tracers to monitor up to five times more new contacts through digital follow-up. People being monitored input information on their health status. The tool was developed by HealthSpace, a cloud-based platform.
In August, the state announced it would be using two local apps called AlohaSafe Story, which uses GPS technology to log the user’s location, and AlohaSafe Alert, which anonymously records contacts through Bluetooth and Google/Apple Exposure Notification technology. In November, the state started pilot testing AlohaSafe and in January it launched statewide. By early February, the app had been downloaded over 187,000 times since its launch in the last month. Users of either app can choose to share their data securely with Hawaii’s contact tracers if they contract COVID-19. The state is also a participant in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server. The state’s exposure notification app can download the keys or codes of any other state’s exposure notification app if they are both participating. |
ID | The state uses the Situational Awareness Response Assistant Alert system for case management. People can choose to report symptoms daily via text, email, or phone call. Those with reported symptoms are flagged for follow-up by Idaho contact tracers. |
IL | The state launched the Illinois Contact Tracing Collaborative, a technology-based strategy that relies on local health departments for information. The program has three components: (1) disease-reporting software, (2) common management platform, and (3) 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. |
IN | People contacted by the call center will receive daily emails and texts monitoring their condition. |
IA | The state contracted with DOMO to launch new contact tracing software in November. |
KS | 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.
In August, the University of Kansas launched an app created by CVKeyProject to reopen its campus. Users can conduct a health self-assessment and then generate a QR code to verify access to campus buildings. |
KY | The state employs an online tracking system that uses the Salesforce platform for case management.
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. |
LA | The state uses Accenture and Salesforce for case management.
In January 2021, the state announced a new COVID-19 tracing app called COVID Defense. The free app uses Bluetooth technology to send exposure alerts to contacts. The Louisiana Department of Health’s Contact Tracing program is using SMS text messaging to provide COVID-19 positive individuals, their contacts, and travelers to the State of Louisiana with advice and support about infection, isolation and quarantine, how to protect their own health and that of others, and assistance in meeting basic needs for food, shelter and medical assistance while quarantined. The contact tracers also collect personal information from individuals through SMS text messaging about their COVID-19 symptoms, health, isolation and quarantine plans. |
ME | The state uses the Situational Awareness Response Assistant Alert system (SARA Alert) for case management. The tool, developed by MITRE, enables the state to track and monitor cases. People report symptoms daily through web, text, email, or calls, which helps the state coordinate and direct care where it is most needed.
In December, Maine launched technology to send text messages to individuals who test positive for COVID-19. Individuals must opt-in to receive the text messages. |
MD | A contact tracing platform called covidLINK helps collect information about people who test positive for COVID-19 and anyone they have come into close contact with. The platform was developed in consultation with Rhode Island and Austin, Texas. The platform also incorporates medical data from the Chesapeake Regional Information Center for Patients.
The state uses the app Exposure Notifications Express, based on Apple and Google’s software framework, in coordination with several other states. The app uses Bluetooth data to alert users if they come into contact with someone who has reported testing positive for COVID-19. The state reported over 1 million people downloaded the app within the first week of it’s November launch. The state is a participant in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server. The state’s exposure notification app can download the keys and codes of any other state’s exposure notification app if they are both participating. |
MA | The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority created a virtual support center. Accenture and Salesforce are implementing support center capabilities.
Salesforce helps capture data from case investigations and contact tracing. Data from Salesforce are uploaded to MAVEN, the state disease surveillance system, daily. Testing facilities also report cases and contact info to MAVEN. In December, the state selected Boston University along with the nonproft Mitre to pilot test a digital contact tracing app. |
MI | The state partnered with Deloitte to coordinate technology integration, such as an automated text messaging system to which people can opt in after the initial call with a contact tracer.
On Nov. 9, 2020, the state launched MI COVID Alert, an app based on Apple and Google’s exposure notification platform using Bluetooth technology. Users who test positive receive a PIN that enables them to see their test results. Close contacts, defined as other app users within six feet of the person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes, will receive a notification that they are a close contact of an anonymous case, but only after the test results are manually entered into the system. In December 2020, the app had been downloaded 500,000 times and the state launched a statewide text message campaign to encourage Michigan residents to use the MI COVID Alert contact tracing app. The state is a participant in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server. The state’s exposure notification app can download the keys and codes of any other state’s exposure notification app if they are both participating. The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association produced two mobile applications for restaurants called Temp Check and Guest Protect so that restaurants could meet state requirements for screening staff and collecting guest information. |
MN | The state contracted with a private vendor for a computer system to implement contact tracing.
HealthPartners and the University of Minnesota developed a mobile application called SafeDistance. Clinicians at HealthPartners are encouraging patients and the public in the Twin Cities area to use the application. In mid-November, the state debuted COVIDaware MN, an app that notifies people when their phone has been in close proximity to the phone of a person with COVID-19 for enough time to be considered a close contact. By January 2021, the app had been downloaded 367,000 times. COVIDaware MN participates in the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server, which allows the state to download keys from other exposure notification apps that are on the server. |
MS | Not found |
MO | The Department of Health and Senior Services manages the COVID-19 Technology Response System. This includes the Electronic COVID-19 Case Reporting System, EpiTrax and Missouri’s Advanced Contact Tracing System (MO ACTS)
The Electronic COVID-19 Case Reporting System allows medical providers and required reporting entities to enter positive case information. EpiTrax is a comprehensive disease surveillance system that receives reports from COVID-19 tests. EpiTrax uses test data to trigger case management and investigations by local public health agencies (LPHAs) and DHSS staff. MO ACTS uses COVID-19 case contacts from EpiTrax and serves as the central contact tracing system for LPHAs, DHSS and contracted staff. Through MO ACTS, contacts can be contacted by phone, text or email. |
MT | At least two county health departments are using SARA Alert, which allows individuals who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or potentially exposed to the virus to report daily symptoms through web, text, email, and robocall.
Missoula County uses PatientOne, a locally developed app, to help with case management of quarantined individuals. Yellowstone County is using software for trend identification for positive cases and contacts. |
NE | Information is entered into the Nebraska Electronic Disease Surveillance System, a database shared with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
NV | The state uses the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, which helps public health officials process, analyze, and share disease-related health information, including as it relates to contact tracing.
The state is also working with Deloitte and Salesforce on a statewide digital contact tracing solution. In August 2020, the state launched COVID Trace, an opt-in contact tracing app developed by Google and Apple that allows phones to anonymously exchange information when in close contact through Bluetooth. In December, the state expanded the capabilities of the COVID Trace app by launching Exposure Notification Express (ENX) through a partnership with Apple and Google. Now individuals can turn on ENX to alert users who have been within six feet for more than 15 minutes of a COVID-19-positive individual. The app is on the National Key Server, which allows apps to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC have joined the National Key Server. Some counties are struggling with the Salesforce platform. For that reason, Clark County began using EpiTrax. Now the state wants to expand EpiTrax use to the rest of the state. |
NH | The state uses the New Hampshire Electronic Disease Surveillance System, which provides case management, investigation, and contact tracing functionality. The system also processes electronic laboratory data and provides data for situational awareness related to persons with COVID-19 and laboratory testing in the state.
The state has also implemented a vendor developed Salesforce solution to support contact notification and monitoring called Granite Trace. |
NJ | The state uses the Dimagi CommCare case management platform to centralize its contact tracing efforts.
In September 2020, 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. The app is on the National Key Server which allows apps to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC have joined the National Key Server. |
NM | The state is using communication and case management platforms developed by MTX Group that lets the state identify people to call and then follow up with over 14 days. The technology also enables NM to use predictive modeling to predict where cases will grow and where more resources might be needed. New Mexico has also partnered with Accenture to manage the overall contact tracing effort and ensure privacy protections.
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; the state does not yet have a statewide app. |
NY | Contact tracers use a secure database developed by CommCare, a mobile data collection company, to track coronavirus cases and monitor contact tracing efforts. New York City partnered with Salesforce to deploy a call center and case management system.
In October, the state released an exposure notification app, COVID Alert NY, using Bluetooth technology. As of February 2021, more than 1.3 million individuals have downloaded it. The app is based on technology developed by Apple and Google. The app is on the National Key Server which allows apps to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC have joined the National Key Server. |
NC | The state uses the COVID-19 Community Team Outreach Tool. This tool allows people to enter their own symptoms and helps to streamline and integrate contact tracing work across the state.
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 individuals who later test positive for COVID-19. The state is targeting marketing of the app at populations at high risk of exposure to COVID-19, including colleges and universities. As of January 2021, there have been over 660,000 downloads of the SlowCOVIDNC app. The app is also on the National Key Server which allows apps to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC have joined the National Key Server. |
ND | The state has two apps – the Care19 Diary, which serves as a memory aid that uses location data to help users who test positive for COVID-19 recall where they’ve visited in the last 14 days to assist the contact tracing process, and the Care19 Alert app which uses the exposure notification technology jointly developed by Apple and Google for public health agencies to supplement their COVID-19 contact tracing efforts.
The Care19 Alert app is on the National Key Server which allows apps to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC have joined the National Key Server. The state is developing a case management system using Microsoft Dynamic. |
OH | The state uses the Ohio Disease Reporting System.
Some local entities, such as the Lake County school district and the Cincinnati International Airport, are partnering with Volan Technology to use a Bluetooth-based contact tracing application. |
OK | The state is using an app created by Google and MTX Group that lets medical staff engage remotely with people who may have been exposed, directing those with symptoms to testing sites.
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. |
OR | 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.
Piloting of the state’s exposure notification app, OR Notify, ended in December 2020. The app uses Bluetooth technology and is based on the platform created by Apple and Google. The state plans to release the app before April 2021. The state tested the app on the OSU campus, with nearly 5,000 participants. The system is not intended to replace traditional contact tracing, but will be used to alert users who were in close proximity to a positive case. |
PA | The state is using SARA Alert, a web-based monitoring tool, to send daily emails, texts and/or phone calls to cases and identified close contacts during their isolation/ quarantine monitoring period.
In September 2020, the state launched an app, COVID Alert PA, which uses proximity exposure technology. Users voluntarily report when they test positive, which in turn anonymously alerts other phones that have been in proximity for a specified time. It is available in four languages. Individuals ages 13 through 17 are also able to use the app with parental consent. As of February 2021, there were 778,000 downloads of the COVID-19 Alert PA App. The app is on the National Key Server, which allows apps to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC had joined the National Key Server. |
RI | The state uses Salesforce, a customer relationship management platform, to capture data from case investigations and contact tracing.
As of January 2021, the Rhode Island The Department of Health (RIDH) launched a text-based contact tracing system enabling residents to fill out an online form, providing contact information for close contacts. The system will automatically text the list of people, informing them they must self-quarantine. The system builds on the existing health portal, which residents use to check their COVID-19 results. The system is not designed to replace human contact tracers but to supplement the contact tracing work. CRUSH COVID RI, an app to share information, including daily location data for up to the past 20 days, with the 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. |
SC | The state uses SCIONx (South Carolina Infectious Disease and Outbreak Network for Externals) for disease surveillance and outbreak management.
As of January 2021, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control does not use a contact tracing app. They maintain their data separately for privacy and security purposes. The state recently implemented new patient management software that will expand capacity to rapidly reach contacts, provide education on the importance of quarantine, and allow them to monitor positive cases during quarantine. |
SD | The South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) is providing a web-based questionnaire to aid in contact tracing. People identified as close contacts may receive notification from DOH asking about their health along with guidance on testing and quarantining.
Together with North Dakota, the state launched Care19, a location-tracking app to map the spread of COVID-19 and assist with contact tracing. The Care19 app is a location-logging application for use in contact tracing. The health department will ask people who test positive to share their location log for tracing purposes. The app can also automatically notify others who were close by and may have been exposed. Use of the app and disclosure of location information is voluntary. |
TN | The state uses the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System to facilitate communication between health care professionals and government agencies. |
TX | Texas created an online contact tracing system for reporting possible exposure and COVID-19 symptoms called Texas Health Trace.
A state lawmaker filed a bill in December 2020, that would prohibit the use of cell phone location data in contact tracing. |
UT | The state uses EpiTrax to manage positive cases and their contacts. The state partnered with a tech start-up to roll out an app called HealthyTogether to augment contact tracing efforts. The app prompts users to take a daily symptom assessment and connects those in need of testing to a test site. In July, the state announced the app’s tracker feature would be disabled.
As of November 2020, the state was considering using the free Apple and Google technology, Exposure Notification Express, to notify users when they have been exposed to an positive COVID-19 case. In December 2020, the state began sending automated text messages and emails to positive individuals and their contacts who do not answer an initial phone call from contact tracers. The text message or email includes a link to a secure form where the person can provide contact tracing information electronically. |
VT | The state health department will engage with cases and their contacts using Situational Awareness Response Assistant (SARA) Alert technology, a text-based monitoring system.
Starting in December 2020, contacts maybe contacted via text message prior to receiving a call. The state is using the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System to manage COVID-19 case data. This system helps public health departments manage reportable disease data and supports public health investigations. |
VA | The state uses the Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System to contact and manage cases. This system is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System.
During outreach, contact tracers also attempt to enroll cases into the Sara Alert system. This system sends email and text messages that prompt a person with COVID-19 to complete a daily self-report of their symptoms. The state launched COVIDCheck, a website which allows people to check their symptoms and guides them to testing, if needed. The state also launched a proximity tracking app called COVIDWISE. Users must opt-in to the COVIDWISE notification system which uses their phone’s Bluetooth technology to track other app users. If one user encounters another who had a positive COVID-19 test within the last 14 days, the app will provide an exposure notification alert and next steps from the Department of Health. In December 2020, the COVIDWISE app became part of the National Key Server which allows it to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC have joined the National Key Server. In February 2020, the state launched COVIDWISE Express as an additional exposure notification tool for iPhone users. COVIDWISE Express does not require users to download the app, but is activated through the Exposure Logging on their smartphone. |
WA | The state uses the state’s notifiable conditions database, the Washington Disease Reporting System, to compile information about COVID-19-related test results. The state also uses a texting tool to send information to people quickly and efficiently.
The state uses the WA Notify app, which is based on Google Apple Exposure Notification technology. Users can opt in to receive notifications if a contact tests positive for COVID-19. As of February 2021, WA Notify had more than 1.78 million users. The app is also on the National Key Server which allows it to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC have joined the National Key Server. |
WV | The state uses the West Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System, a web-based electronic reporting system, for case management.
The state uses COVIDWISE, an exposure notification app, to support traditional contact tracing. |
WI | The state uses the Wisconsin Electronic Disease Surveillance System to enter, trace, and monitor information on active cases.
The state launched the WI Exposure Notification app in partnership with Apple and Google. The app is on the National Key Server which allows it to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC had joined the National Key Server. |
WY | The state entered a partnership with North Dakota-based ProudCrowd for the Care19 Alert app, which was launched in North Dakota and South Dakota in April. The app keeps record of a person’s location for potential use in contact tracing if the user then tests positive for the coronavirus.
The app is also on the National Key Server which allows it to download keys from other state apps on the server. As of February 2021, 21 states and Washington, DC. have joined the National Key Server. |
Funding Allocated by State
Identifies the funds and their sources, when available, that the state has earmarked for contact tracing.
State | Funding Allocated by State |
AL | Federal coronavirus relief money allocated to the state health department will pay for the contact tracing contracts.
The state is using more than $30 million in 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. |
AK | The state uses federal grants to support all aspects of the COVID-19 response, including contact tracing.
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. |
AZ | In June, the governor announced the state health department would provide more than $37 million to enhance contact tracing locally and statewide.
Maricopa County put $15 million of its federal CARES Act funding toward contact tracing. In July, Pima County health department entered into a six-month, $10-million contract with Maximus Health Services Inc, with options to extend as needed. In December, the state announced it would provide $115 million to its three public universities to cover COVID-19-related costs. The funds are drawn from the Coronavirus Relief Fund, part of the federal CARES Act. |
AR | In July, the Arkansas CARES Act Steering Committee approved $38 million for contact tracing.
Also in July, the state entered into a $20 million contract each with General Dynamics Information Technology and the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care to employ 300-350 contact tracers each. In July, the Arkansas Legislative Council approved $7 million for contact tracing in the Marshallese and Latinx communities of Northwest Arkansas. The state allocated $28 million to institutions of higher education from the state CARES Act Fund. The University of Central Arkansas was allocated $977,000 for contact tracing efforts. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ 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. The deadline to spend down Arkansas’ CARES Act Funds was extended until March 30, 2021, and the state has about $10 million left to spend on contact tracing, testing, and PPE, at higher education institutions. |
CA | In August, the state announced $81.8 million in philanthropic aid, including $63 million from Kaiser Permanente, to bolster contact tracing and quarantine efforts.
Sacramento County budgeted $400,000 for staff for activities including contact tracing. The county expects to be reimbursed by federal dollars from the CARES Act. Tulare County spent $288,160 on 33 contact tracers. The state awarded an $8.7 million contract to the University of California San Francisco for training. 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 participation in contact tracing. A statewide public awareness campaign to encourage residents to answer contact tracing calls is funded by multiple private partners, including Jeff Skoll, the California Health Care Foundation, the California Endowment, Twitter, and Facebook, which 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. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2021 budget proposal includes $473 million to improve contact tracing. Through new federal funding distributed by the US Centers for Diease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health is sending new funds to California counties to support their COVID-19 Public Health efforts including case investigation and contact tracing. Sacremento County is receiving $60 million, Yolo County will receive $10.4 million, Placer County will receive $12.1 million, and El Dorado County will receive $6.5 million. |
CO | In March 2020, the state created a public needs fundraising initiative, Colorado COVID Relief Fund, and raised more than $3 million to support community organizations, including those that conduct contact tracing. As of November, the fund has raised more than $22 million. The state received $10.3 million in CARES Act funding to build up the state’s test and trace programs.
In May 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided Colorado $160 million to help testing and contact tracing. By August 2020, Colorado had received nearly $3.5 billion in federal funding, 24% ($840 million) of which supports COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and case investigation. The federal agency for volunteering and service, the Corporation for National and Community Service, will support Colorado’s contact tracing initiative by redeploying AmeriCorps members and providing nearly $2 million in federal funding for new AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associates and Senior Corps volunteers. |
CT | In October 2020, the state paid AMN Healthcare, a California company, $24 million to hire, train, and oversee a crew of contact tracers to bolster the state’s efforts, particularly in localities with few staff or a large volume of positive cases.
In the same month, the state announced the release of $20 million to regional health districts to support local tracing efforts. This funding came to the state through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Cooperative Agreement. In December, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that over $311 million of Connecticut’s allocation from the federal COVID relief bill would support vaccination, testing, and contact tracing. |
DC | The mayor directed $2.3 million from the district’s Contingency Cash Reserve Fund for initial hires. |
DE | The state has invested more than $6.8 million into its contact tracing program.
The state reported that it invested about $390,000 of federal funding to develop, market, and maintain the COVID Alert DE app. New Castle County will contribute up to $3.1 million of its federal CARES Act funding to the statewide contact tracing program. |
FL | Florida’s health department initially contracted with Maximus using at least $33.6 million from federal CARES funds.
In August, Maximus reported that the cost of the contract would likely increase to $65 to $75 million. Palm Beach County is paying $875,600 in federal coronavirus aid to use the CombatCOVID exposure notification app, and Miami-Dade will pay $775,000. Palm Beach County allocated $1 million in CARES Act funding for contact tracing. State funding for the county’s contact tracing will run out at the end of November, but the county is in contact with the state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify additional sources. |
GA | Not found |
HI | The state entered into a $2.5 million contract with the University of Hawaii using in-state funds for training.
In December, federal funding for the Hawaii National Guard contact tracing assistance was extended through March 2021. The state is expected to receive $81 million for testing and contact tracing from the Federal COVID Relief bill. |
ID | The state is using $7 million from the CARES Act to fund contact tracers.
The governor’s 2021 proposed budget includes $250 million to continue to respond to the pandemic, including vaccine rollouts, testing and contact tracing. |
IL | The state estimates that cost of contact tracing will be $80 million.
All 97 local health departments have applied for state funding support totaling $230 million to increase contact tracing. Chicago awarded the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership $56 million in state and federal funds to work with 31 community-based organizations 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. As of late October, $21 million has been released. The state dedicated $250 million to reimburse local governments outside of Cook, Lake, Will, Kane, and DuPage counties for pandemic-relief expenditures, including contact tracing. |
IN | The state is contracting with Maximus, a health and human service provider, to provide contact tracing for $43 million per year.
Indianapolis is contracting with the Indiana University School of Public Health at $10.5 million to provide contact tracing. In January, Indianapolis allocated an additional $1.9 million in city funds to support ongoing contact tracing. |
IA | In November, the state awarded an emergency $2.3 million contact tracing contract to MCI to supply 200 contact tracers.
The state contracted with DOMO for $250,000 to develop new contact tracing software. |
KS |
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas awarded a $200,000 grant to the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments, which passed through funds in $5,000 increments to local health departments across the state to support contact tracing efforts. |
KY | The state has a $4.27 million contract with Deloitte to oversee the contact tracing technology.
About $112 million in CARES Act funding for additional contact tracing staffing is effective through Dec. 31, 2020. The Louisville mayor estimates the cost of the city’s contact tracing contract will range between $25 million to $100 million; federal funds are expected to help cover the cost. Nearly $290 million of the state’s share of the December 2020 Federal COVID Relief bill will be used for COVID-19 contact tracing, testing and mitigation efforts. |
LA | In May 2020, the state paid $20 million from federal funds to several private companies to hire, train, and pay contact tracers: HUB Enterprises, Calls Plus, Coast Professional, and Hammerman & Gainer.
In May 2020, the state established a $1 million contract with Louisiana State University to help ramp up contact tracing. As of December 2020, the state has spent $30 million on contact tracing. |
ME | In July 2020, the state allocated $1 million in federal CARES Act funding for services related to COVID-19, including contact tracing.
In September 2020, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1 million to 24 organizations in Maine that support contact tracing or contact tracing–adjacent activities. In January 2021, Maine’s congressional delegation announced the state will receive an additional $89 million in federal COVID relief funds, including $77 million for testing, contact tracing, and other strategies. |
MD |
In January 2021, Maryland’s congressional delegation announced that the state health department will receive over $400 million in federal funding from the Federal COVID Relief bill to expand COVID-19 vaccine distribution, contact tracing, and testing capacity. |
MA | Initially, the state agreed to pay Partners in Health up to $55 million through December. In August, the state extended the Partners in Health contract through March 2021 with an additional $22 million. The state has a $39 million contract with Accenture and Salesforce to develop and manage software.
The state will get $452.1 million to expand COVID-19 testing, tracing, and mitigation as part of the December 2020 Federal COVID Relief bill. |
MI | The state entered into a $1 million contract with Rock Connections, a call center company, to manage contact tracing volunteers.
In May 2020, Michigan received $315 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to support COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. |
MN | In August 2020, the state health department requested $35 million from the legislature to contract additional contact tracing efforts out to vendors. Previously, the legislature authorized $8 million to create the information technology system needed to track cases and their contacts and $3 million to hire a temporary employment agency to fill staffing gaps.
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. In December the state released another funding opportunity for community outreach and engagement, with a total funding amount of $1.5 million. |
MS | The state will receive $171 million to support testing, contact tracing, containment, and mitigation to monitor and suppress the spread of COVID-19 from the December 2020 Federal COVID Relief bill. |
MO | Gov. Michael Parson has suggested counties use federal stimulus dollars to support contact tracing efforts. A majority of state contractors were had their funded extended through March 2021.
Staff hired by St. Louis county are funded by $173.5 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The county has used $600,000 of federal relief funds for additional contact tracing training and data collection. 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. |
MT | The state used $5 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds for a grant program for local health departments, tribal public health, and urban Indian clinics to enhance COVID-19 contact tracing, support local businesses in safely reopening, and increase education or enforcement. |
NE | Not found |
NV | State lawmakers approved the use of $96 million in federal grants for contact tracing and expanded laboratory testing. The state contracted with Deloitte for $28.4 million.
In June, the state purchased Salesforce contact tracing software for $1 million dollars. 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. In January 2021, the state awarded the University of Nevada – Las Vegas School of Public Health an additional $1.7 million to continue contact tracing efforts. |
NH | Some state general funds and primarily federal COVID-19 funding allocated to New Hampshire are supporting the contact tracing operation.
Specifically, the state allocated $61 million dollars from the CARES Act for testing and contact tracing. The state will also use $180 million dollars from the latest federal COVID relief bill for testing and contact tracing. |
NJ | Bloomberg Philanthropies is investing $10.5 million and partnering with Johns Hopkins University to execute the recruitment, training, and deployment of 3,500 contact tracers for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
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, 2020. Another $1.9 million went to Cambridge-based Dimagi for use of the CommCare database platform the tracers use in their work. In August, the state contracted with the Public Consulting Group for a three-month $23.5 million contract to hire, manage, and pay 1,200 contact tracers. |
NM | The state established a $12.5 million contract with Accenture Healthcare Services to set up a call center for contact tracing.
New Mexico also has a $7.5 million dollar contract with MTX for contact tracing. In November, the governor signed a relief package passed by the state legislature allocating $10 million dollars for testing, vaccine distribution, and contact tracing. |
NY | Bloomberg Philanthropies committed $10.5 million to the contact tracing program.
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. |
NC | New contact tracing staff are hired by a third-party (Community Care of North Carolina) through a contract with the state health department.
As of January 2021, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has spent $125 million CARES Act funding on testing and contact tracing |
ND | Not found |
OH | The state Controlling Board approved the use of $12.4 million federal Covid-19 funds for contact tracing.
The governor allocated $100 million of CARES Act funding to higher education, some of which will go to contact tracing. The Cleveland Foundation is offering grants to community-based Cleveland nonprofits for prevention efforts, including contact tracing. |
OK | The state allocated $21.7 million funds from the CARES Act for testing and contact tracing.
In November 2020, the Cherokee Nation received a $4 million grant for testing and contact tracing through a National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for Underserved Populations grant. |
OR | In July, the state reported that it had made $11 million of federal COVID-19 relief funding available to Oregon counties to support investigation and tracing of cases. |
PA | The department of health was awarded a CDC grant of $18.7 million, a portion of which was earmarked for contact tracing.
The state contracted with Insight Global at $23 million to increase its contact tracing workforce. The state contracted with NearForm Ltd. at $1.9 million to deploy and maintain the Covid Alert PA app. |
RI | Rhode Island’s Department of Health received $5.4 million in CARES Act funding to boost the state’s testing and contact tracing infrastructure.
As of January 2021, the Rhode Island Department of Health had received $70.4 million in federal funding, with $61 million supporting testing, contact tracing, and containment and mitigation efforts, and $9.5 million supporting vaccine distribution. |
SC | The state’s Accelerate South Carolina task force proposed that $15 million of the state’s federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding be used to ramp up contact tracing. |
SD | Not found |
TN | As of June 2020, the Tennessee Department of Health had a $20 million contract with Xtend Healthcare for a contact tracing call center.
The Memphis mayor presented a proposal to the city council that would allocate $8.7 million for the Shelby County Health Department for increased contact tracing, $2.7 million of this would go to the health department to hire staff. |
TX | The state awarded a $295 million, 27-month contract to the MTX Group for contact tracing. In August 2020, a group of state lawmakers filed a lawsuit to invalidate this contract because of alleged violation of competitive bidding rules. |
UT | The state spent $2.75 million on an app and will pay $300,000 per month for maintenance fees. |
VT | $33 million of federal emergency aid dollars were approved for a variety of grants, mostly to defray increased costs in health and human services related to contact tracing and other actions required to combat COVID-19. |
VA | Virginia is committing $58 million in federal emergency aid to expand contact tracing. |
WA | In December 2020, $50 million of the state’s CARES Act funds were allocated to the Department of Health for case investigation and contact tracing activities. |
WV | The state will receive $103.1 million through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act to expand testing and contact tracing. |
WI | The state allocated $75 million of the state aid received through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to contact tracing.
In January 2021, the state announced an additional $86 million in funding for local and tribal health departments to offset COVID-19 related expenses, including contact tracing. |
WY | The state allocated $15 million in federal funding to the state health department to expand testing, improve contact tracing, and add to the state’s supply of personal protective equipment. |
Please email Elinor Higgins if you have questions or updates to share.