{"id":91102,"date":"2020-05-20T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-does-la-plata-county-do-contact-tracing\/"},"modified":"2020-05-20T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T11:00:00","slug":"how-does-la-plata-county-do-contact-tracing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/how-does-la-plata-county-do-contact-tracing\/","title":{"rendered":"How does La Plata County do contact tracing?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Contact
Contact tracers play a pivotal role in slowing the spread of COVID-19, health officials say, by tracking down anyone who may have been exposed to an infected person. That way, those who may have been exposed can self-quarantine, thereby limiting the spread.<\/span>Illustration by Gary Markstein<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In normal times, Claire Macpherson was manager for San Juan Basin Public Health\u2019s environmental health program, mostly inspecting restaurants to make sure local eateries followed safe food-handling procedures.<\/p>\n

Now, with the coronavirus outbreak taking top priority for the health department, Macpherson\u2019s work has turned into a part-time investigator, tracking down the spread of the disease as a contact tracer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most humanizing parts when responding to an emergency such as this,\u201d she said. \u201cWe talk to people who are sick, and you see the personal effect COVID-19 has on people in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact tracing, where workers like Macpherson contact an infected person, then try to identify anyone else that person may have exposed, is regarded as one of the most important pieces to fighting the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

By tracking individual cases, state health officials say, potentially affected people can be better directed toward quarantine, thereby limiting further spread of the virus to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cTesting only has this epidemiological benefit when you couple it with the tracing and the quarantines that go along with it,\u201d Gov. Jared Polis said in April.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s going to take a massive effort, Polis said, with hundreds of contact tracers working the phones to combat what\u2019s considered a highly contagious disease.<\/p>\n

\"Claire
Claire Macpherson, environmental health program manager for San Juan Basin Public Health, used to inspect restaurants for food safety. Now, she traces people in the area who may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
How does it work?<\/div>\n

The entire process starts with testing, which is why having that capability in Southwest Colorado is so important, Macpherson said.<\/p>\n

When a test comes back positive, the health department is notified. After the infected person is notified of the result by a medical provider, SJBPH contact tracers then step in and make the call to the person who tested positive.<\/p>\n

Contact tracers start by asking questions to try to identify how a person was exposed or where a person may have contracted the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inevitable that you\u2019re going to expose someone while you\u2019re sick in a lot of situations,\u201d Macpherson said. \u201cAnd our goal is to contact everyone we become aware of within 48 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the list is made, contact tracers begin reaching out to those potentially exposed. Names of the original person infected are never disclosed, Macpherson said, to protect patient privacy. And it\u2019s voluntary to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tell them they could have been exposed, then ask how they\u2019re feeling,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are absolutely helpful and want to be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team of tracers<\/div>\n

About five to six staff members at SJBPH have been leading the contact-tracing effort, and because La Plata and Archuleta counties\u2019 caseload has remained relatively low at about 80 confirmed positives, staff has been able to handle it in-house.<\/p>\n

On average, each positive case results in about five people SJBPH must follow up with \u2013 family, friends or co-workers \u2013 who may have come in close contact with the infected person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have more than 200 entries in my contact-tracing spreadsheet,\u201d Macpherson said. \u201cBut obviously, we don\u2019t have 200 positive cases. Just because you\u2019ve been exposed, doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019ll become ill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from following up with contacts, time is also dedicated to keeping track of who is in isolation or quarantine and helping them with services such as getting groceries or medicine. Everyone is checked up on 30 days later to see how they recovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is labor intensive,\u201d said Claire Ninde, spokeswoman for SJBPH. \u201cMany public health agencies nationally are overwhelmed and can\u2019t do it. But I feel like we are pretty committed to ensure we keep the community safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers at the ready<\/div>\n

With businesses starting to reopen, and more tourists venturing into Southwest Colorado, health officials are bracing for a surge of potential positive cases, and with it, the need for ramped up efforts on contact tracing.<\/p>\n

\"When
When a COVID-19 test comes back positive, local health officials are notified. Then, contact tracers with San Juan Basin Public Health reach out to find out where the person may have contracted the virus, and who may have been exposed.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing a good job social distancing and staying at home,\u201d Ninde said. \u201cBut we may not be able to follow the contacts as much as we\u2019ve been now as businesses start to open up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should SJBPH\u2019s current team not be able to handle the increased workload, the health department has been training 10 or so volunteers, mostly made up of retired doctors and nurses.<\/p>\n

Kathleen McInnis, a former nurse who worked at SJBPH and went on to become executive director of Southwestern Colorado Area Health Education Center, said she saw contact tracing as a way to help out with the pandemic response.<\/p>\n

McInnis and other volunteers have been engaged in virtual trainings for the past week. As restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus ease, the contact tracer reserves will be ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of care coordination and helped people get resources they needed,\u201d McInnis said. \u201cSo this is a good fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding the fight<\/div>\n

More federal and state money has been dedicated to contact tracing, but it is unclear how much Southwest Colorado will see of the funding.<\/p>\n

Sen. Michael Bennet announced last week nearly $160 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would go to boost contact tracing in Colorado.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman with CDPHE said, \u201cContact tracing has been a component of our COVID-19 response since the first case was reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may remember in the early days of the response we were able to determine if the cases were connected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Macpherson said efforts so far have seen significant success in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to do the right thing and stay home when they\u2019re sick or asymptomatic,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd by informing them of potential exposure, it can make a big difference in slowing down the spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

department workers take on new role tracking spread of COVID-19<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,13,819,28,445,668,686],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-public-health","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91102"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}