Indiana is looking to update its contact tracing procedures, amid the surge in COVID-19 cases. Back in May, the state contracted with a company called Maximus to launch a centralized contact tracing center to ease the burden on local health departments. But now, the Starke and Pulaski County health departments say they’re being inundated with cases, and they need to hire part-time nurses to keep up.
During last week’s COVID-19 press conference, State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said more contact tracers are being added at the state level, as well. “I think there’ll be an additional 600 contact tracers that come on in the month of November, bringing us, probably, close to 1,500 to 1,600, in addition to what our local public health individuals have,” Box said.
On top of that, she said the state is also looking at adjusting the interview questions that contact tracers ask, while relying more on those who test positive to notify close contacts themselves. “We also are looking to actually be more targeted with that initial interview and paring that interview down and really starting to rely on talking to individual patients who are positive, making sure they understand that they’re positive and what isolation looks like and the importance of how they need to share information and provide that information to them, so that they can share it with their close contacts,” Box explained.
The current surge is also having an impact on testing. Box said it’s taking longer for results to come back, as labs are overloaded. “Honestly, there are some shortages of different materials, plastic materials, that the labs need to run some of these labs,” she added. “So it’s really a juggling act, similar to what we had early on with testing.”
Box said the state is working to get additional labs on board and increase the use of instant tests that don’t require labs.
