Over the past week, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have returned to high levels not seen since the start of this year. Douglas County health officials say contact tracing is one of the main ways to control COVID-19 and limit its spread. “About half of our cases just don’t answer the phone,” said Justin Frederick, epidemiology supervisor at the Douglas County Health Department. community and prevent contact tracers from determining who else has been exposed. Frederick said that with a new twist added to the equation, contact tracing is more important than ever. “It saves us a little bit of time, hopefully allows us to slow the spread of the variant down a bit,” Frederick said. Disease investigator Megan Karjicek said they were using calls to locate Covid-19 hotspots and clusters by taking positive cases and connecting them to something bigger like a basketball game -ball or even the classroom. “We are trying to investigate the exhibition with the school. So asking about the events, the things that, you know, why do we see so many in this group? Karjicek said. Right now, young people make up a third of the total cases in Douglas County, ranging from infants to 19 years old. Next come the 20-29 year olds who represent a quarter of cases. “It’s really affecting our young populations right now,” Frederick said. The influx of cases prompted the Douglas County Health Department to partner with professional research consultants to deal with the heavy workload. While relieving stress for his team of just eight people. “They’re actually being hired to help us trace contact with the number of cases we have now, we haven’t been able to keep that within the health department alone,” Frederick said. Karjicek said the appeal is a small chunk of time, which ultimately benefits the community. “Follow the recommendations as best we can to help our community get through this,” Karjicek said. The Douglas County Department of Health has said your test is positive, you may receive a call from extension 444 or the caller ID may say “Professional Re” or “DCHD-PRC”. If you do not reply, you may also receive an SMS from them.
Over the past week, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have returned to high levels not seen since the start of this year. Douglas County health officials say contact tracing is one of the main ways to control COVID-19 and limit its spread.
“About half of our cases just don’t answer the phone,” said Justin Frederick, epidemiology supervisor in the Douglas County Department of Health.
When people do not answer the phone, it could pose a danger to the community and prevent contact tracers from determining who else has been exposed.
Frederick said that with a new twist added to the equation, contact tracing is more important than ever.
“It saves us a little bit of time, hopefully allows us to slow the spread of the variant down a bit,” Frederick said.
Disease investigator Megan Karjicek said they were using calls to locate Covid-19 hotspots and clusters by taking positive cases and connecting them to something bigger like a basketball game -ball or even the classroom.
“We are trying to investigate the exhibition with the school. So asking about the events, the things that, you know, why do we see so many in this group? Karjicek said.
Right now, young people make up one-third of the total number of cases in Douglas County, ranging from infants to 19-year-olds.
Next come the 20-29 year olds who represent a quarter of cases.
“It’s really affecting our young populations right now,” Frederick said.
The influx of cases prompted the Douglas County Health Department to partner with professional research consultants to deal with the heavy workload. While relieving stress for his team of just eight people.
“They’re actually being hired to help us trace contact with the number of cases we have now, we haven’t been able to keep that within the health department alone,” Frederick said.
Karjicek said the appeal is a small chunk of time, which ultimately benefits the community.
“Follow the recommendations as best we can to help our community get through this,” Karjicek said.
The Douglas County Department of Health has said your test is positive, you may receive a call from extension 444 or the caller ID may say “Professional Re” or “DCHD-PRC”. If you do not reply, you may also receive an SMS from them.
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