One way to help reopen the economy is more cooperation with contact tracing, health department says

The McHenry County Department of Health is struggling to get residents to comply with COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, with 16% of people refusing to participate in September and 32% in October, Public Health Nursing Director Susan Karras said Friday.

While contact tracing has been an essential part of public health for a long time now, it was an unfamiliar concept for many in the general public until state and local health officials began ramping up contact tracing efforts in April and May as Illinois prepared to reopen its economy.

“This is something that we have done for decades,” Karras said. “It is an intervention that helps us to mitigate the spread of all infectious diseases that occur in the public.”

Here’s how it works: When a new positive case of COVID-19 is reported to the McHenry County health department, that individual is contacted by a tracer who will ask them a series of questions about their symptoms, when those symptoms started, who they recently came into close contact with and when, Karras said.

All calls from contact tracers come through 312-777-1999 and may show up on caller ID as “COVID tracer,” she said.

A person with COVID-19 is considered to be infectious two days before the onset of symptoms and then 10 days after symptoms begin.

The contact tracer will reach out to anyone who the infected person has come into close contact with – defined as being closer than 6 feet apart for 15 minutes – in that window of time to ask them a few questions and to notify them of necessary next steps, Karras said.

McHenry County has increased its contact tracing capacity significantly since the start of the pandemic, Karras said. After receiving grant money back in August, the department hired 20 additional contact tracers and currently has 15 to 20 staff working at all times, she said.

The department also works with a private company to contract additional contract tracers, with the ability to expand to have 60 to 65 tracers if necessary. This is important for times like the present when the county’s case count has begun to rise significantly over the past few weeks, she said.

“We have that capability to expand and contract, so we’re using those [grant] dollars wisely as well,” Karras said. “We’re not hiring people that aren’t working or, you know, we’re not able to use if we come back down.”

McHenry County reported an average test positivity rate of 17% Sunday, and its region (Region 9) is under additional mitigation measures because of a recent surge of COVID-19 cases, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

One of the best ways the county can begin to control the spread of the virus – and reopen the local economy – is to increase the number of people who are willing to participate in contact tracing, Karras said.

“If we would have better cooperation, we would have more refined data on where this transmission is actually happening so that we can be more strategic with our mitigation interventions,” she said.

The main concerns that people have expressed when contacted are around confidentiality, the burden of isolating oneself and fear of the “stigma” that might come with having exposed others to the virus, Karras said.

All of the county’s contact tracers have some kind of health care background so that they are able to come into the job with a basic understanding of infectious diseases and medical privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, she said.

This means they take confidentiality very seriously and do not give out any personal or potentially identifying information when reaching out to a person’s contacts, Karras said.

“We take this extremely seriously here at McHenry County Department of Health, and we’ve actually fought to protect the rights and the personal health information and private information of the constituents we serve,” Karras said.

When it comes to the burden of isolation, contact tracers can connect those who have contracted the virus with community health workers who provide support and resources during the isolation period, she said.

These workers can help with securing groceries or prescriptions, answering questions and connecting people with the physical and mental health resources available within the community, Karras said. They also help with employment issues and provide official notes for students to return to school or for adults to return to work.

Working to reduce the stigma that people might feel when they have contracted COVID-19 is a more difficult thing to address, but nevertheless something of which her department is very conscious, Karras said.

Contact tracers are not out to judge anyone for the decisions they may have made, she said.

“I don’t think people are purposely out there wanting to make people sick, and it’s really nobody’s fault,” Karras said. “But if we all do what we’re supposed to do when it happens, that’s what’s important to keep that curve flat.”