Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
■ States’ ability to perform contact tracing of infections varies widely.
States’ levels of staffing for task are patchwork
ATLANTA — As more states push to reopen their economies, many are falling short on one of the federal government’s essential criteria for doing so: having an efficient system to track people who have been physically near a person infected with the coronavius.
An Associated Press review found a patchwork of systems around the country for so-called contact tracing, with many states unable to keep up with caseloads and scrambling to hire and train enough people to handle the task for the months ahead. The effort is far less than what public health experts say is needed to guard against a resurgence of the virus.
The result is a wide array of strategies and little national coordination. With few exceptions, most states reviewed by AP are going it alone.
As late as Friday, the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said detailed guidance on contact tracing for states was “forthcoming.”
“We’ll not ever control the whole country unless we have the same strategy,” said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, a former CDC official. “Right now, that’s not what we’re doing.”
Contact tracing is a pillar of infection control and typically requires in-depth interviews with those who may have been exposed. The number of public health employees needed for the work throughout the U.S. remains up for debate, but some estimates are as high as 300,000 people.
Louisiana, which has been hit hard by the virus, had only about 70 people working on tracing contacts this week. By comparison, North Dakota, with less than a fifth of Louisiana’s population and no serious outbreaks, has 250 case investigators and will soon bring on an additional 172 staffers.
Utah has 250 people at the state health department assisting local agencies in tracing contacts, and it can add 500 staffers if needed. Massachusetts expects to spend $44 million on an aggressive contact-tracing plan and has already begun hiring and training the 1,000 people it expects to need.
California, with nearly 40 million people and more than 37,000 confirmed cases, has limited tracing ability. It recently announced plans to establish a “contact-tracing workforce” and train 10,000 people.
Washington state, which experienced the first major outbreak in the U.S., was initially overwhelmed. It now has about 700 people focused on tracing contacts and plans to expand the workforce to 1,500 by the second week of May.
The CDC said Friday that it is working with state and local jurisdictions to identify needs for “surge support staff ” to assist with contact tracing and other infection-control measures.
Some states, such as Georgia and Tennessee, are easing social and business restrictions even as they try to build up their contact-tracing ability.
Georgia Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey said the state plans to retrain some employees for contact tracing and use a new mobile app to track infections. It will ask infected people to voluntarily share their cellphone data so the state can find other contacts.