ROCHESTER, Minn. (FOX 9) - As COVID-19 testing expands, more people are learning they may have the virus. It’s up to a small army of public health workers to track down those that may have been exposed.
Dr. Laura Breeher leads the contact tracing efforts at the Mayo Clinic. She says the data shows most of the virus exposure at the moment is occurring in the community, but they’re then bringing it into the house.
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Contact tracers race to track the increasing community spread
As COVID-19 testing expands, more people are learning they may have the virus. It’s up to a small army of public health workers to track down those they may have been exposed.
“We have found that household exposures often pose the highest risk, because with our household members we are not wearing masks within our households,” said Dr. Breeher. “And we have prolonged, very close contact with spouses and children and others living in our households.”
Those possible exposures are easy to track, but the exposures in public gatherings are not. In fact, Dr. Breeher says it’s nearly impossible, but that doesn’t mean the state is not trying. The Minnesota Department of Health says there are currently 1,100 contact tracers across the state. Most of them are assigned to local public health departments. The state has also contracted with a company called Rose International to bring in 267 more.
In New York City at the peak of the crisis last spring, health officials had to slow down contact tracing to shift resources to treating patients. Such a scenario would likely compound the growing crisis in the Midwest.
“If at some point the contact tracing becomes overwhelmed and states and other institutions have to stop, the spike in cases goes unchecked,” said Breeher.
So far, Minnesota is not at that point.
“My hope is that we’ll never have to give up in Minnesota that we can keep going throughout this surge and continue after the surge as well,” she said.
One key message from Dr. Breeher is to answer your phone. No one wants to do it right now because of all the election robocalls, but she says it’s important to pick up or at the very least listen to the message if it’s from a contact tracer and to get back to them.