The Indiana Department of Health has streamlined the contact tracing interview process. State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said Wednesday that contact tracers are now focusing on notifying the person of a positive test result, what symptoms to look for, and how to isolate.
“Our contact tracers will continue to gather information the person is willing to share about close contacts, but they won’t be asking for a detailed list of symptoms of each individual,” Box explained. While tracers will still reach out to close contacts, everyone who tests positive is strongly encouraged to notify the contacts themselves.
Box said that on the first day the changes took effect, they led to a significant increase in the number of people contact tracers were able to get a hold of. “Our outbound calls were up by 64 percent,” Box said. “The number of people who hung up because they were tired of waiting was cut in half. The time people were on hold dropped, and the number of people who had to leave voicemails fell by more than 70 percent. We’ll be monitoring this closely over the next week to see if these trends continue.”
Box also reported Wednesday that the CDC has eased its quarantine recommendations for close contacts who aren’t showing symptoms. They now only have to quarantine for 10 days or just seven if the person tests negative on days five, six, or seven. However, those who frequently encounter high-risk individuals should continue to quarantine for the full 14 days, and Box recommends that those who can work from home do the same.
“I would finish out the 14-day quarantine because that has – in medicine, we never say zero and 100 percent – but as close to zero-percent chance that you’re going to become infective in that time period and infect someone,” Box said. “But I think that some jobs require that people get back sooner. We already have health care workers because of our staffing shortages that are working, even though they know that they should be in quarantine because they’re wearing PPE.”
Box said the shorter quarantines should also help get kids back in school sooner.
