Before Suffolk County can safely begin to emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown, an expansive contact tracing program designed to contain future outbreaks by identifying, monitoring, and isolating those who come in contact with someone infected must be in place, according to New York State guidelines. The county is currently amassing an “army of investigators” for that effort, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said on Monday.
“We are actively working on getting the contact tracing stood up,” he said. “Literally hundreds of people that are going to be working on this . . . have to be vetted and hired and trained.”
The New York State Department of Health has partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies, a charitable organization founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Vital Strategies, an organization that helps governments around the world address health challenges, to develop the program.
“When social distancing is relaxed, contact tracing is our best hope for isolating the virus when it appears, and keeping it isolated,” Michael Bloomberg said on April 30 during a press conference at which he and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo discussed the initiative. The state is seeking to have 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents.
Although contact tracing is currently done by the state to track cases of tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, “there’s never been anything of this scale,” said Dr. Kelly Henning, who leads the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Health program.
For Suffolk County, more than 400 contract tracers will be hired, including supervisors who will lead teams of about 20 tracers, and community support specialists, who will help Covid-19 patients and their contacts find housing, food, health care, and other needed services. County employees will also assist in the effort. According to the county’s latest count, 230 tracers have been recruited thus far. The Public Consulting Group, a management consultant, has been enlisted to oversee the hiring process and is accepting applications on its website.
On Monday, Johns Hopkins launched a free online course on Coursera.com to train tracers in the rudiments of interviewing people diagnosed with the virus, finding their contacts, and providing advice and support.
Contact tracers will be hired for at least 12 months, said Dr. Henning, and they will work remotely. After the Department of Health is notified of a new positive case, it will alert a team supervisor who will be in charge of interviewing the patient and identifying his or her contacts. Contact tracers will telephone those contacts by phone, notify them of their exposure to the virus, and instruct them to isolate themselves for 14 days, she said. “If the contacts show symptoms, tracers will make sure they get a test.”
Although those infected with the virus may have had incidental contact with unidentifiable strangers, say in a supermarket or on the beach, Dr. Henning said those people would not be considered at risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a contact as someone who has been within six feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes. “People you pass on the street wouldn’t necessarily fit into that category,” she said.
Developing a contact tracing program is a monumental task, said Dr. Henning, but it is a vital part of the effort to reopen businesses and other venues without putting people at risk. “Everyone wants to move around and open the economy, and this is one of the best tools to use to break the chains of transmission and keep people safe,” she said.