Contact Tracing Playbook
  • Contact Tracing Playbook
  • What is contact tracing
    • Three core steps
    • Who is responsible
    • Manual vs. digital
    • Asymptomatic cases
    • Things to consider
  • Contact tracing programs
    • Federal
    • States
    • City / County
  • How to do contact tracing
    • Workforce expansion
    • Laboratory testing
    • Isolation and quarantine
    • Monitoring and evaluation
    • Data management
      • Legal & data sharing frameworks
      • Negotiating data rights with vendors
    • Technology enablement
    • Review of vendors
  • Other resources
  • Glossary
  • Other Playbooks
  • About USDR
    • Authors
    • Have questions? Get in touch with USDR
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  • Population-based estimates
  • Roles needed

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  1. How to do contact tracing

Workforce expansion

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Last updated 5 years ago

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While contact tracing is routinely performed to control STDs, TB, and other communicable diseases, local health departments have limited front-line workforce (e.g., epidemiologists, disease intervention staff, public health nurses) to support contact tracing at the scale and pace of COVID-19. The for training and supplementing existing staff for ongoing and surge support.

Population-based estimates

For contact tracing to be effective, every diagnosed case must be investigated, which means the contact tracing workforce must be capable of responding quickly even during surges. using this calculator provided by public health organization , and review additional estimates below.

Source of estimate

Estimated number of contact tracing staff per 100k population

Massachusetts/Partners in Health (initial staffing, which PIH believes will need to be increased subsequently)

14

Johns Hopkins/Association of State and Territorial Health Officers

30

Resolve to Save Lives

100

Roles needed

Role

Who can fill

Description

Contact tracers

  • Local lay people trained and supervised by disease intervention specialists

  • Volunteers from academic public health community

Communicate with contacts to gather data and inform about quarantine procedures.

May work remotely during shelter-in-place (e.g., one-on-one phone interviews or text-based messaging services) or in-person.

Case investigators

  • Community health workers

  • Disease intervention specialists

  • Nurses

Interview confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases.

Interview newly diagnosed cases to determine period of infectiousness, elicit contacts, and identify clinical and other resource needs.

Delegate appropriate administrative work to contact tracers (e.g., finding contact information, reviewing isolation and quarantine recommendations and resources)

Care resource manager

  • Social workers

  • Case managers

Arrange wrap-around services (e.g., food, medication delivery) for cases and contacts in isolation or quarantine.

Provide incentives, food, or referral to programs that provide financial assistance.

Clinical consultant

  • Nurses

  • Nurse practitioners

  • Physicians

Provides clinical support to case investigators or contact tracers if cases/contacts become symptomatic or require referral to the hospital.

Data analyst

  • Local lay people trained and supervised by disease intervention specialists

  • Volunteers from academic public health community

Data monitoring and analysis

Data entry technician

  • Local lay people trained and supervised by disease intervention specialists

  • Volunteers from academic public health community

Careful data entry, review, and correction

CDC provides resources
Find the number of staff you’ll need
Resolve to Save Lives