Answering the Call: Contact tracers help track, contain the spread of COVID-19 in Whitley Co.

With new COVID-19 cases still being announced every day, the process of contact tracing is playing a crucial role in tracking, and hopefully reducing, the spread of this deadly disease.

Tamara Phelps, Nursing Supervisor at the Whitley County Health Department, recently took some time to explain the process of contact tracing, how it works, what it is meant to accomplish, and how individual citizens can assist in the effort.

“The importance of it is to try and reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community,” Phelps explained. “If we are talking to a positive case, we want that person to tell us who they have been around during a specified time frame. That is where we get a little pushback from people, though. They don’t always want to name everybody that they’ve been around.”

As for specifically what information Phelps and her team will ask for when contacting someone who has tested positive for COVID, she said, “We are actually doing disease investigation first, so we will contact the patient themselves to get info like symptoms, when they became sick, and all of their contacts. Then we do the contact tracing, which means we reach out to those contacts that the patient mentioned to inform them to quarantine and watch out for any symptoms to develop.”

Other data that could be collected include a basic health history and demographic information. Once the data is collected, it is shared with the Department for Public Health in Frankfort. The Department for Public Health will then share its data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As for privacy concerns, all data collected is protected under the Health Insurance and Portability Act of 1996, or HIPAA as it is most commonly referred to. Phelps further explained that all charts are locked away at the end of each day, and only certain individuals are granted clearance to access the system where anyone’s personal information would be stored. She also assured that information is never shared with anyone outside of what is allowed by HIPAA.

Phelps herself has performed disease investigation and contacting tracing duties for the Whitley Health Department long before COVID, but additional contracted local workers have been hired recently to assist with this particular public health crisis.

Whitley County Public Health Director Marcy Rein explained that the funding for these contracted positions comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was passed by Congress earlier this year to help protect Americans from the public health and economic impacts related to COVID-19.

Speaking about some of the additional steps taken by the Whitley Health Department in the overall disease investigation and contact tracing processes, Rein said, “We make daily contact with these people to make sure they have what they need like food and medications, that they are safe at home, and to assess whether they have developed symptoms, need access to healthcare or have other risk factors that we need to help them address. We have secured a safe place to stay, coordinated food bank baskets, gone grocery shopping and delivered supplies for people impacted by this pandemic.”

On the most effective means of combatting COVID-19, Rein said, “Quarantine and isolation are important to stop the spread. Early intervention reduces the number of people that come in contact with someone who is positive.  It helps reduce exposure to those in our community most at risk of serious illness and helps keep our community safe. It allows our businesses to stay open, our economy to recover, and schools and other activities to resume.”

For more information on the process of contact tracing, and how to apply to become a contact tracer, go online to kycovid19.ky.gov. Any additional questions concerning the ongoing contact tracing efforts in Whitley County can be directed to the Health Department by calling their main line at 606-549-3380.

For those wishing to be tested for COVID-19, active testing sites can be found either by visiting the official state website previously mentioned, calling the Whitley County Health Department directly, or contacting your family healthcare provider.