Since Thanksgiving, the seven-day average of new cases in the district, Maryland and Virginia has increased elevenfold, reaching 30,929 on Friday, a spike that has begun to overwhelm local hospitals and urgent care centers.
But with the number of potential contacts infected with the highly contagious omicron variant far higher than with previous variants, it is not possible for health officials to reach everyone who may be at risk. risk – especially after some localities reduced their contact tracing ranks during a lull. the pandemic over the summer, say public health experts.
“I don’t think we can scale up enough to make a huge difference in terms of limiting transmission with contact tracing,” said Crystal Watson, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who focused on contact tracing efforts during the pandemic.
“It moves so quickly, by the time someone takes a test – and we have a lot of backlogs with testing – that person has probably gone on to infect others who may have infected others,” she said. declared.
Even if fully vaccinated residents become infected and, in some cases, fall ill enough to be hospitalized, public health experts say it’s even more vital for area residents to get tested five days after potential exposure. and to follow federal guidelines to prevent further infections if they learn they have come into close contact with someone who has tested positive.
For the unvaccinated, those guidelines mean quarantine for at least five days and then wearing a mask around others for another five days. Those who have been fully vaccinated are encouraged to wear a mask around others for five days and, if they develop symptoms, to stay home and self-isolate.
Some Washington-area locations have begun hiring more contact tracers and case investigators; the latter serve as the first government point of contact for someone who has tested positive to share information about others potentially exposed so they can be connected to a contact tracer.
Maryland plans to hire another 100 contact tracers in the coming weeks, adding to its 700 statewide ranks at local health departments, with another 400 working in a virtual call center staffed by the University of Chicago’s NORC Research Center, said Andy Owen, a spokesman for the state health department.
The DC Health Department recently added 18 case investigators to its contact tracing force, for a total of 168, while Virginia maintained its ranks of 1,200 case investigators and contact tracers after hiring more of these workers during the the summer delta variant push, officials said.
Most of the time, health officials in the region are prioritizing their contact tracing efforts, focusing on hard-hit areas or high-risk settings, such as nursing homes and schools, to limit the damage caused by the virus. They urge other residents who have tested positive to notify close contacts of potential exposure on their own as soon as possible, or use smartphone apps that allow these alerts to go out anonymously.
“If we’re not able to reach people before the quarantine period ends, that really doesn’t add anything to help them,” said David Goodfriend, health director for Loudoun County in Virginia, who saw more than 800 new cases a day. and has 42 contact tracers working full-time or part-time.
“On top of that, we’re seeing more and more people getting tested through home testing kits,” he said. “So we never see those results and are unable to provide proper contact tracing.”
Goodfriend said his department is working on a public awareness campaign to urge all residents who have tested positive to tell anyone they may have been exposed as soon as possible, a step other localities have also taken or are planning. .
In Maryland, state health officials plan to roll out an online survey for infected residents so that contact tracers can quickly identify those most at risk of severe illness or who are in places where an outbreak occurs. rapid transmission is likely.
The onslaught of new infections can seem overwhelming nearly two years into the pandemic, especially to contact tracers working to stem the tide, said Elaine Perry, acting health director for Virginia’s Shenandoah Central Health District, where the omicron variant comes from. to settle down.
“It’s tough when you’re looking at a long line of cases and you know you’re not going to process them all,” Perry said. “But we just try to remind them, ‘Everyone you meet is always someone you can help.'”
Watson said health officials were wrong to reduce their ranks of contact tracers during lulls in the pandemic, arguing that’s when the effort is most effective.
“It becomes more useful and more important as we get lower case numbers because we can further reduce transmission and hopefully get us to a more sustainable place,” she said.
For now, with the omicron variant invading virtually every aspect of society, most people should assume they are within striking distance of the virus if they have been within six feet of someone. another, especially indoors, Goodfriend said.
“Wherever you go, you probably come into contact with the virus now,” he said. “Even if everyone is doing everything right – fully vaccinated, wearing a mask – it doesn’t prevent you from potentially getting infected.”
Comments are closed.