contact tracers – Royal Kazaar

COVID-19 close contact rules for WA schools updated as parents and guardians avoid quarantine

Willie S. Morrissey — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 22:28:03 +0000

New rules have been introduced for close contacts linked to COVID-19 cases in Western Australian schools.

The changes come after the state recorded another day of more than 2,000 infections on Sunday.

Based on updated public health advice, the new rules mean that parents and caregivers are no longer required to self-quarantine when providing care to a child identified as a close contact with a COVID case. -19.

Depending on the needs of the child, a parent or caregiver may still need to stay home to care for them during their quarantine.

WA Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said the changes would mean less disruption for families.

“These rules have been introduced to minimize the impact on families when children are identified as close contacts, including allowing siblings who have not been identified as close contacts to continue attending school.” , did he declare.

Families still need to be vigilant

The WA Health Department said families should take extra precautions and monitor themselves for symptoms.

These precautions include minimizing physical contact with close contact, sleeping separately from close contact, using a separate bathroom if possible, washing hands thoroughly, cleaning surfaces with disinfectant or a diluted bleach solution, covering coughs and sneezes and wear a mask in common areas. or taking care of household members.

Andy Robertson says siblings not identified as close contacts can continue to attend school.(ABC News: Keane Bourke)

Dr Robertson also said people should reduce interactions with vulnerable family members as much as possible during the close contact quarantine period.

“Families who have a child at home under quarantine due to close contact should minimize non-essential interactions with family members who are elderly, immunocompromised, or have medical conditions such as heart, lung or kidneys,” he said.

Constant changes in the “bumpy start” of the year

As COVID-19 continues to spread through the community and across schools across WA, Education Minister Sue Ellery admitted it has been a bumpy start to the year.

“It’s disturbing, but it’s handled calmly and methodically,” she said late last month.

With case numbers rising, schools are urged to manage their own contact tracing as public health contact tracers focus on high-risk sites like aged care, hospitals, police and essential services.

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson told parliament it was “standard public health progress”.

While the opposition criticized the move, Armando Giglia, head of the WA Secondary School Executives Association, said it would reduce delays between people testing positive and being able to report that information.

“Schools are just able to respond more quickly … instead of having to wait for Health to do contact tracing,” he said.

“They can actually make choices at school and send communication much earlier.”

Qantas deal launched after WA border opened

In another COVID-related announcement, the WA Government and Qantas have launched a two-for-one return airfare deal for travelers from Eastern states heading west.

Special rates are available from now until Friday, unless sold out before then.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Tourism Minister Roger Cook said the promotion would allow people to travel to WA from Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne for $299 per person, when booking a return economy class flight for two passengers or more with a minimum total spend of $598.

High case count alters COVID contact tracing

Willie S. Morrissey — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 02:08:00 +0000

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) – At the start of COVID, public health officials attempted to contact everyone who tested positive. Now, some agencies have concluded that they just can’t catch everyone, so they’re changing their strategy.

Health officials depended on contact tracing to help reduce the spread of COVID. The idea was that if you tested positive, you would receive a call from a health worker asking who you have been around so they can determine if those contacts could also be spreading COVID.

But Omicron sent such a high number of cases that health experts concluded they couldn’t reach everyone, so they better shift priorities.

The Arizona Department of Health Services said it is reducing contact tracing for the general population and focusing on congregate living — places like nursing homes and homeless shelters where populations are most vulnerable and where nearby neighborhoods facilitate the spread of the virus.

Pima County Health Director Dr. Terry Cullen says Pima County is still working to contact anyone who tests positive, but is giving some settings an extra priority.

“The predominant impetus for contact tracing right now is our school cases and our community life cases. Both of these continue to be very high risk situations. And we continue to do contact tracing in them.

Dr. Cullen says the county was hitting a thousand new cases a day last month. Unless someone refuses to cooperate – and some refuse – a tracer may learn that two or three other people need to call. The phone call itself can last an average of 20 minutes.

Dr Cullen says: “That means we would have had a thousand cases to investigate and two to three thousand contacts. This was not the case at the time. So to be blunt as we say we are still doing contact tracing. In the midst of these very high numbers, people were not being contacted.

She says the number of more recent cases has declined, but is still well above levels considered dangerously high.

Dr Cullen says more than data is lost when people don’t hear about contact tracers. Tracers can offer advice on how best to quarantine and where to find services that can help get through their COVID cases.

What Really Triggered WA’s “Close Contact” Changes

Willie S. Morrissey — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 03:57:20 +0000

Under mounting pressure from major industry groups, schools, health care worker lobbies and the state media, Mr. McGowan took advantage of his government’s vague definitions to pull the trigger on a transition.

The Prime Minister said emphatically on Monday that the changes were not happening due to community pressure, despite the fact that hundreds of pupils and teachers and their families had to spend 14 days in self-isolation when several schools have recorded cases. Several mining sites had also been affected by COVID-19 in recent weeks.

Mr McGowan pointed to how WA went from nine community cases from January 28 to January 26 on Monday to justify the change.

“It’s a 150% increase,” he said. “On top of that we had a number of people who came over the weekend [because of a February 5 easing of state entry requirements].

“There are therefore 10,000 people passing through the airport, 2,000 others through the road border.

“While these people are required to self-quarantine – they will be monitored by a G2G pass, they will have testing and other requirements on them – we expect there will be leaks of this.

“Opening ourselves up to more risk means the virus will spread faster; given our low case numbers for so long, this may come as a shock to some people.

The rise in cases from nine to 26 is not why WA introduced the rules, although 22 cases were recorded on January 29 and cases fell to 13 on Tuesday.

And health officials have not detailed any further “leaks” of self-isolating arrivals, even though thousands of people have been doing so safely for more than a month.

Despite Mr McGowan’s protests the change in close contact was not prompted by community pressure, Dr Robertson, in his February 6 health advice to the Prime Minister, made it clear that the old rules n were more applicable and something had to give.

“Given the increasing number of WA cases, especially in large wards, the number of people who need to quarantine as close or casual contacts is now disproportionate to the risk,” he said. .

“A change to the quarantine period will foster confidence within the community and industry that WA is moving towards a transition to ‘living with COVID’ and should improve public engagement and trust.

“This will have great benefits for the industry by allowing workers who have traveled to WA to start their jobs earlier.”

Dr Robertson also wrote that the community would be more willing to cooperate with contact tracing efforts with less onerous quarantine requirements.

He cited several studies and noted how a recent survey by the Federal Department of Health found that only 6% of the 1,382 cases of COVID-19 that entered Australia, over an unknown period, tested positive for the first time. after seven days of quarantine.

Studies have emerged since January indicating that Omicron only took three days to incubate.

Why the government didn’t go ahead with the rule change sooner is a bit of a puzzle.

Australian Medical Association WA President Mark Duncan-Smith, who has been one of many voices calling for reduced periods of isolation for close contacts, said science has already underlined the need for a seven-day quarantine rather than keeping people locked up unnecessarily. at the top.

“It makes for an incongruous policy that sort of approaches bureaucratic hypocrisy when you punish children with a week of unnecessary isolation but still have nightclubs open,” he said.

Dr. Robertson said at Monday’s press conference that the state has been successful in suppressing Omicron so far with the rules it has, but regardless of that fact, the increase in cases will increase exponentially very soon and in a few days.

“Nobody notices the doubling at first,” he said.

“But if you look at the numbers, unfortunately more and more of these cases are locally acquired, more and more of these cases are unrelated, so we expect in the next few days that our numbers will start to double.

“You’ll notice we’ll be going from 36 to 72 to 100. So we’re looking at that and putting those measures in preemptively as we expect to get those increases in the next few days.”

There are still 27 cases under investigation for their source, but these are not considered ‘mystery cases’ as contact tracers have an idea of where they may have caught the virus from.

But Dr Robertson said it wouldn’t be long before contact tracers weren’t able to find every exposure site an infected person had been to.

The chief health officer says it is now best to recalibrate the system to focus on tracing contacts who were most at risk of contracting the disease.

The AMA WA and state opposition have called for a new reopening date, but Dr Robertson did not say when exactly a review, which is expected to take place within four weeks from January 20, would take place. actually take place.

Dr Robertson would not be determined whether the rapid uptake of booster shots – with 45% of over-18s getting triple shots, around 10% more than the health director estimated the state would be in early February – meant the state could open before winter.

WA could theoretically have around 80% of the triple of more than 16 cohorts bitten around March 13, but authorities say they are not simply linking an opening to vaccination rates.

The government also won’t say when tougher restrictions will be introduced, although it said similar measures in South Australia will come with fewer cases than that state brought them to.

But judging by how quickly WA stopped holding its boundary and introducing new contact protocols, it probably won’t be long.

Mr McGowan has tried to bring home the number of deaths in other states lately, but on Monday he also told WA not to panic.

“Western Australians should take a higher workload seriously, but that is not cause for panic. Not at all,” he said.

“We prepared for this, keep going, keep working, support your local businesses.

“Be reasonable and be careful. If you are sick, stay home and get tested. Register on the sites and check the exhibition sites. Wear your mask and, if you haven’t already, get vaccinated for the third time.

“We can minimize the disruption, I am determined not to make the mistakes that other states and other countries have made.”

Our latest news alert will be notify you important breaking news as it happens. Get it here.

The COVIDSafe app was designed to help contact tracers. We analyzed the numbers to see what really happened

Willie S. Morrissey — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 03:28:00 +0000

At the start of the pandemic, the COVIDSafe app was designed as a tool to improve contact tracing. And a multimedia campaign promoted it as helping to find more COVID contacts faster.

Today, almost two years after its launch in April 2020, we publish in Lancet Public Health our assessment of the effectiveness and usefulness of the app in New South Wales.

We analyzed data from 619 recorded COVID cases in NSW aged over 12 and their contacts between May and November 2020. We also surveyed contact tracers to find out if they found the app useful.

Our analysis showed that the app did not add much value to the existing conventional contact tracing system.

A total of 22% of cases used the app. Most (61%) of the contacts registered by the app as “close contacts” turned out not to be epidemiologically linked to a case. The app only detected 15% of true close contacts identified by conventional contact tracing.

In total, COVIDSafe detected only 17 additional true close contacts in New South Wales during the six-month evaluation period.

This has resulted in substantial additional work for contact tracers and overall has not made a significant contribution to the COVID response in NSW.

Read more: From COVID control to chaos – what now for Australia? Two paths are open to us

Tracing takes time

Interviewing new cases to identify, trace and isolate their close contacts is a critical public health activity. But that takes time, and contact tracers can be quickly overwhelmed when the number of cases increases.

Digital contact tracing apps were enthusiastically adopted at the start of the COVID pandemic in many countriesincluding Australia.

Like many other tracing apps, COVIDSafe uses smartphones’ built-in Bluetooth feature to exchange signals between phones.

The duration, frequency and transmission strength of these “digital handshakes” are used to determine whether two smartphone users have come into “close contact” with each other.

Poor ability to correctly detect and identify close contacts

During our study period, less than a quarter of all cases used the app. That’s half the proportion of the general Australian public who have done so.

Of the cases that used the app, many did not have a single contact recorded by the app. For others, contact tracers were unable to access app data.

Contact tracers could use app data for 32 (5%) of 619 cases during our study period. Of these cases, only 79 (39%) of the 205 contacts recorded by the app as “close contacts” could be verified as true close contacts. This suggests a low positive predictive value of the app.

Here are examples of fake close contacts recorded by the app:

neighbors in different apartments in apartment buildings
office workers in adjoining rooms
customers from nearby restaurants
people waiting in separate cars at drive-through COVID testing clinics.

The vast majority (85%) of close contacts identified by conventional contact tracing were not detected by the app, indicating low sensitivity.

Some additional contacts detected

In the six months of our study, there were only 17 true close contacts identified by COVIDSafe who would otherwise have been missed – a tiny fraction of the more than 25,300 close contacts detected and tracked through conventional contact tracing in New South Wales during the same period.

None of those 17 contacts have tested positive. COVIDSafe therefore did not contribute to preventing new exposures in New South Wales during our evaluation period.

Read more: Free rapid antigen tests make economic sense for governments, our analysis shows

Technological defects

Contact tracers didn’t find the app easy to use. Some said the app doesn’t seem to work as reliably on all types of phones. The number of contacts on iPhones was grossly underestimated, while those on Android phones were overestimated.

Contact tracers have also noted the app’s apparent inability to properly save contacts unless it’s open. This could explain the large number of cases without any contact recorded in our study.

The process of matching close contacts identified by the app with those identified during case interviews was considered time-consuming, especially since most of the contacts detected by the app were not actually close contacts.

Staff interviewed said it could easily overwhelm the contact tracing system if the number of cases had been higher, paradoxically reducing the usefulness of the app when it was needed most.

Overall, contact tracers’ perceptions of the app ranged from “not having much impact” to being an extra step that increased the workload without adding much value.

The app identified 17 contacts that would otherwise have been missed.
Image AAP/Scott Barbour

Little added value at high costs

In our study, COVIDSafe did not make a significant contribution to the COVID response in New South Wales in 2020. Instead, the app created a high workload without any clear benefit.

This contrasts with the 7.7 million Australian dollars he cost to develop and run COVIDSafe until the end of April 2021, with estimated maintenance between $60,000 and $75,000 per month since.

The arrival of the highly transmissible variant of Omicron at the end of 2021 in Australia, coinciding with the lifting of most public health restrictions, has led to a massive increase in the number of cases, forcing a series of major adjustments in the search for contacts.

Read more: Australia has all but ditched the COVIDSafe app in favor of QR codes (so be sure to check in)

In most parts of Australia, contact tracing now plays a very limited role in controlling COVID. Nevertheless, it is likely to stay a key public health intervention for infectious diseases in the future.

For digital contact tracing apps to be effective and useful, it will be important to involve contact tracers when designing the system, testing the underlying technology under real-world conditions, and evaluating the app regularly. after deployment.

Dr Anthea Katelaris, a public health physician who worked at the Western Sydney Local Health District Public Health Unit at the time of the study, co-authored the research referenced in this article.

Acadly for contact tracing | UIC today

Willie S. Morrissey — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 19:06:19 +0000

Acadly is now available to make contact tracing easier for instructors and students. Acadly can record on-campus and hybrid course attendance and can be provided to contract trackers in lieu of seating charts. Acadly does NOT use GPS to track students, but it does make it easier for contact tracers to know who has been exposed.

If you want to start using Acadly in your classroom, recorded webinars and demonstration videos are now available on the Academy announcements page. Students can find all the information they need on the Academy students page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Acadly has a great FAQs to answer your questions. Here are some of the most common:

Does this use GPS?

No. The Acadly app does not use GPS or track anyone’s physical location. On Android devices, the app asks for permission to access GPS, but that’s because of an Android quirk that combines Bluetooth/Wi-Fi scanning permissions with “location” permissions. However, although the application must request this authorization for technical reasons, GPS data is at no time collected or stored by Acadly.

Can Acadly replace clickers?

Yes. Acadly can be used for classroom polls, quizzes, discussions, Q&As, word clouds, and even to share files and videos with students. All of this data can also be exported to the Blackboard notebook.

Has Acadly been reviewed to be FERPA compliant?

Yes, Acadly has been reviewed for FERPA compliance by multiple universities, including UIC. For any specific questions regarding data privacy, please contact us at support+uic@acadly.com.

Other uses for Acadly

Acadly does much more than take attendance. This educational technology tool brings an enhanced course experience for students and instructors by enabling quizzes, polls, discussions, word cloud questions, videos, files, and more, all in a single app. Acadly’s student engagement features provide educational benefits while its proximity and attendance data provide timely information critical to the contact tracing process required to keep our university safe.

For any other questions about using Acadly, contact the Acadly team directly at support+uic@acadly.com (average response time: six hours).

Follow CATE on Twitter.

Contact tracing program questioned after delays – CBS Sacramento

Willie S. Morrissey — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 06:08:00 +0000

YOLO COUNTY (CBS13) – CBS13 has learned that several people have tested positive for Covid-19 and have not received calls or text messages from contact tracers for weeks.

This raised two questions: are people unknowingly exposing others and is contact tracing necessary?

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A person will test positive for Covid-19 and will only receive a call or text from contact tracers after they have already tested negative, meaning anyone they have seen in person in the meantime has already potentially been infected.

“If contact tracing doesn’t happen in a timely manner, it won’t help,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, professor of medicine and public health at USC.

Dr Klausner says that with the omicron Covid-19 variant prevalent, the program is of little value.

“Omicron has a shorter incubation period,” he said. “To effectively monitor omicron through contact tracing, calls should be made within 24-48 hours of a person testing positive.”

And it is not possible. Due to high demand for testing, local labs are being beefed up and positive results take several days to reach the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) which is in charge of contact tracing notifications.

“Last week in Yolo County, we had the most positive tests we’ve ever had,” said Yolo County spokesman John Fout.

Yolo County has had a record 238 cases per 100,000 people.

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“When you have that many tests, you’re going to have test delays,” Fout said.

Delayed contact tracing means potential for more Covid-19 infections.

“There are a few backups on the state system. The state system is a kind of failsafe. Other systems are especially schools,” Fout said. “If they have a positive contact, they will let people know, as well as workplaces. When there is a positive result, they notify everyone in the office.

So what is contact tracing good for? According to job search site Indeed, the average salary for contact tracers is $27.83 per hour.

Dr. Klausner says the money spent may not be worth it anymore.

“The contact tracing program should be redesigned,” Dr. Klausner said. “Staff could come out to motivate people to get vaccinated. They could also be reassigned to case management.

This would mean focusing only on reaching out to at-risk populations and connecting them to medical care.

NO MORE NEWS: Proposed homeless shelter next to Sacramento Children’s Foster Home

CBS13 reached out to CDPH to ask about delays in their system and if they were considering a new role for contact tracers. We haven’t had a response.

Without a Trace: Contact tracers miss two Omicron cases, system shortcomings are highlighted

Willie S. Morrissey — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 20:44:00 +0000

Despite government assurances that contact tracing was nearly foolproof, the Omicron outbreak quickly highlights the shortcomings of the system, writes Matthew Scott.

TO ANALYSE: The first signs of contact tracers unable to track the burden of new positive Covid cases in the community have emerged.

Two cases from the Omicron outbreak underwent testing and received positive test results without hearing from the contact tracing team.

The cases were an Air NZ worker from the Auckland flight to Nelson and a kitchen worker from Summerset Retirement Village in Flatbush, where a positive case among staff has now led to a mini-lockdown for residents.

READ MORE:
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Jenny Evans/Getty Images

With cases already difficult for them to follow, this phase of the pandemic is proving more difficult for contact tracers.

Contact tracers are responsible for identifying potential contacts of a positive case and contacting them to provide advice on testing and self-isolation.

If people don’t log in or leave contact details when they visit what become places of interest, tracing work can be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Writing in Newsroom last week, University of Otago epidemiologist Amanda Kvalsvig warned: ‘We can expect contact tracing to drop pretty quickly.

And indeed, on Monday, the Department of Health reported that the contact tracing team had a busy day looking for anyone who might have been near a suspected case of Omicron.

However, a Department of Health spokesperson said the cases were not existing close contacts of other cases, meaning they were not known until they tested positive.

Yet both were listed as having come into contact with the Nelson-Tasman family. Both cases were documented as having been at places of interest, one on the same flight and the other at the same wedding.

The lapses run counter to government assurances towards the end of last year that contact tracing could handle the summer surge, with a Department of Health spokesman saying the system could handle 1,000 new cases daily or 6,000 contacts per day.

Chief Health Officer Dr Ashley Bloomfield conceded no doubts about the system. “I’m confident in our contact tracing capability, acknowledging again that the way we use it has changed to be very focused on those very close, close contacts,” he told Newsroom in November.

The problem is that an event like a wedding or several hours enclosed in the tight confines of an airplane cabin with limited ventilation can produce a lot of very close contacts.

An Air NZ spokesperson reported that an air crew employee had been tested after developing symptoms, with no communication from contact tracers.

Similarly, the Summerset Retirement Village kitchen worker was reportedly invited to the wedding at the Totara Event Center in New Lynn on Saturday, Jan. 15, attended by a family who had flown in from the Nelson area.

The first family members to attend the wedding tested positive Thursday morning. But it wasn’t until Friday night that the worker was told by another wedding attendee and went to get tested on his own. Although he works with vulnerable older people, he was not approached by contact tracers until told of the positive result on Saturday.

A spokesperson for Summerset Retirement Village said the company acted immediately after hearing the worker’s positive test result by deep-cleaning the kitchen and closing the village and care center completely.

More than 300 Covid tests were then carried out among staff, care homes and residents of the village.

As public health strategy evolves, contact tracing is set to become less important, with Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins even noting yesterday that at some point suspected cases won’t even be asked out and to get an exam.

It portends a new phase of the pandemic for New Zealand, where halting the spread has been replaced by slowing the spread and reliable tools of the past two years like contact tracing and MIQ are replaced by booster injections and self-isolation.

The difference is that the latter is much more about personal responsibility – the responsibility to keep your immunity in good shape with the best tools at hand, and the responsibility to keep yourself away from others if you wake up sneezing. and coughing.

Tuesday’s Department of Health statement appears to be intended to lower expectations about the effectiveness of contact tracing in this new era.

One of the new hotspots is a busy Sunday night party at the Pukekohe Indian Hall.

“The Auckland Regional Public Health Department believes a large number of people attended this event,” the statement from the Department of Health said. “Anyone in this location at the relevant times is urged to get tested immediately and self-isolate until a negative result is returned.”

Tracking down everyone who attended the Pukekohe event wouldn’t be easy if everyone didn’t scan.

But if the government’s indications are to be believed, the days of people being searched by places visited as the first line of defense against the virus may be coming to an end.

Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Nearly 1000 people isolated after contact with Omicron case

Willie S. Morrissey — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 06:37:21 +0000

There are 10 new cases of Omicron to report today. Video / NZ Herald

Nearly 1,000 people are self-isolating after coming into contact with an Omicron case in recent days.

A Department of Health spokesperson said this morning that 993 contacts were associated with confirmed and suspected cases of Omicron.

Ten new cases of Omicron were announced today – part of 25 cases of Covid-19 reported in the community by the ministry.

The new cases bring the total number of Omicron infections in the cluster to 29.

Of today’s new community cases, at least six are in Auckland and are linked, directly or indirectly, to a family event and other events associated with Auckland over the weekend of January 15-16, when the Omicron cluster began to form.

And 89 of those in isolation have been associated with the Ara-Tai cafe at Half Moon Bay in Auckland, which was visited by an Omicron case last Tuesday for an hour and a half.

“Of these, 87 were met, 83 returned a negative Covid-19 and none returned a positive result,” the spokesperson said.

The case visited the cafe between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. last Tuesday and customers who were seated inside and outside the cafe were asked to self-isolate and get tested.

As of this morning, 56 contacts have been linked to a Sky Tower exhibition event last Sunday.

So far, 21 people have returned negative test results and no one has returned a positive result.

The ministry noted that some of the contacts who were not reached by public health personnel or contact tracers returned a negative result.

“This number will fluctuate but, overall, cases and contacts are expected to increase given the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and as we learn more from case interviews.”

Modeling suggests that New Zealand could receive between 5,000 and 50,000 cases per day of the highly transmissible variant. Despite this, Health Minister Andrew Little said yesterday he was confident the health system could cope.

Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins told Newstalk ZB’s Tim Dower yesterday that many people who receive the variant will be able to stay at home while they fight the virus.

Health officials continue to research how Omicron entered the community.

The link between the nine Motueka cases and the border is not yet known – leading health officials to believe the highly transmissible variant was circulating in Auckland and potentially the Nelson area.

Tomorrow, an announcement is expected from Cabinet after discussions on a new plan within the traffic light system.

Pennsylvania Department of Health Contact Tracing 1 in 10 COVID-19 Infections | Health

Willie S. Morrissey — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 10:00:00 +0000

The spike in COVID-19 infections in Pennsylvania has prevented state investigators from contacting all positive cases, reflecting an evolving reality and a hampered public health response to the pandemic.

State investigators traced about 10% of the 32,676 COVID-19 infections between Dec. 10, 2021, and Jan. 9, according to state data provided to LNP | Lancasters online. By comparison, about a third of the cases between early June and early July were investigated – or just 6,336.

Without contact from a public health professional, the more than 1.1 million Pennsylvanians who rely on the COVID Alert PA app will not receive accurate information about possible exposures. The app requires HIV-positive people to enter an interviewer code.

The surge in cases has also led investigators to focus on cases of particular concern – those associated with long-term care facilities, those among people under 18 or over 65 as well as clusters.

“After a positive test result, public health professionals attempt to reach as many people as possible to find out where they have been and who they have contacted to advise of potential exposure,” Maggi said. Barton, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. , said in an email.

Barton added: “While case investigations and contact tracing are an important part of the COVID-19 response, public health professionals are unable to contact everyone as cases represent in average more than 25,000 cases per day.”

The average daily number of COVID-19 infections has exceeded more than 20,000 since Dec. 22, 2021, according to state data.

Pennsylvania has nearly 500 contact tracers statewide, 237 in the jurisdiction of the state health department, which includes Lancaster County.

Contact tracing is universally considered an essential strategy to prevent the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19.

“Even as more Pennsylvanians are getting vaccinated every day, case investigations and contact tracing remain critical in our response to COVID-19,” Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said in July during publication of the department’s monthly report on contact tracing.

State investigators for this report looked at infections from June 10, 2021 through July 9, 2021, conducting 6,336 investigations, which accounted for about a third of positive cases.

The state health department does these surveys for counties, like Lancaster, that don’t have a local health department.

The positivity rate in Lancaster from January 7 to 13 reached 38.2%, indicating an extremely high rate of transmission.

The World Health Organization recommends a rate below 5% to control the spread.

“Unfortunately, during extreme community spread, contact tracing becomes impossible due to widespread disease transmission,” WellSpan Health spokesperson Ryan Coyle said in an email. “We encourage anyone with symptoms with known exposure to get tested as soon as possible.”

The way contact tracing works is that a public health professional contacts people who test positive for COVID-19 to gather information and provide guidance.

The state had provided monthly updates on its contact tracing efforts, but those stopped in July.

The department “didn’t have the bandwidth” to continue updates, Barton said.

“The virus will become endemic”

In the 30 days between Dec. 10, 2021, and Jan. 9, Pennsylvania recorded nearly 248,000 cases of COVID-19 that public health professionals failed to investigate.

With so few people reached by state investigators, much of the contact tracing effort falls on the public.

“Most healthcare organizations are understaffed and overwhelmed right now, so the staff to do contact tracing just aren’t there,” said Jenni Black, quality and compliance manager. at Union Community Care, in an email.

Black added: “When a person knows they have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19, they are more likely to be cautious around high-risk loved ones and other people in general.”

Union Community, a federally licensed healthcare center, was among the first organizations in Lancaster County to conduct contact tracing using a Google map.

The county’s effort to trace possible COVID-19 contacts and exposures ended in May 2021.

Patients who test positive – if they know of known contacts – are encouraged to tell close friends, family and neighbors when they first started feeling ill as well as the two days before symptoms .

“At this point in the pandemic, contact tracing has a different role,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in an email to LNP | Lancasters online.

Adalja added: “He should really focus on unusual events, a super spread situation and not something to do anyway. The virus will become endemic and public health measures must reflect this reality. »

All public health officials with whom LNP | LancasterOnline took the floor, repeated the same refrain: that being fully vaccinated with a booster dose remains the best defense against serious diseases.

“Now is not the time for our community to let our guard down; continue to wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands, avoid large gatherings and get vaccinated and receive a booster if you qualify to protect yourself and your loved ones,” said Dr. Michael Ripchinski, clinical director of Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, said in an email.

Heartwarming Video: Contact Tracer Wins a Tesla

Willie S. Morrissey — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 22:20:33 +0000

This is a heartwarming video of a contract tracer who won a Tesla last week. His reaction was filmed by his colleagues and reported by boston.com. Grab a handkerchief because if I had tears while writing this, you might be moved too.

A contact tracer in Massachusetts, Kendy Valbrun, tearfully replied that he had never won anything like this in his life upon learning that he had won a Tesla, boston.com reported. Valbrun works for Healthcare IT Leaders and his colleagues captured his reaction in the video below.

The video began with a recorded video call with Valbrun and two other contact tracers. One of the employees, who was later referred to as Alex in the video, I assume is a supervisor. The video looked like a typical employee meeting discussing the Tesla giveaway.

Alex explained that there were a lot of contest entries, but even though he had Valbrun on the call, he was willing to share with him who won.

“Everyone has been very excited about this Tesla contest. So I’ll send an update on that on Monday and look for it in your email. But I’ve got you on the phone. I mean, I’m happy to tell you who won today if you are interested.

Valbrun said yes and Alex continued:

“It’s you. You won the Tesla.

“We’re giving you a Tesla!” »

Her reaction to the news was pure emotion. You can hear her tears of joy when her supervisor said, “Kendy, we are so happy for you. We are so proud of you. We’re excited to have you working with us and for leaders in health informatics. I’m so happy for you.”

Valbrun’s fiancée, who also works with Healthcare IT Leaders, was there and was equally excited about the news.

“I’ve never won anything like this in my life, so it’s shocking,” Valbrun said.

boston.com added that Valbrun and other employees were trying to win a Tesla for referring the most new employees to the company. The article also shared a bit of Valbrun’s history and responsibilities. As a contact tracer, he must speak with people infected with Covid-19 and their close contacts in order to give them health and safety information. Her inspiration to join the business was her mother, who fought Covid-19 and won.

“My mother, who is 68, was in and out of hospital with COVID. Then, in January 2021, she went into cardiac arrest. But, thank God, we still have it with us today. She’s the reason I wanted to do this, so I can reach as many people as possible to give them the information they need.

You can watch the heartwarming video here.

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