The New York City contact tracing team will be put to the test over the winter amid another wave of Covid-19 cases expected to persist over the holiday season.
While the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines has given New Yorkers hope that the worst part of the pandemic will be over by 2021, the city still has to navigate a difficult winter. The seven-day average of new and probable Covid-19 cases in New York City is above 3,000 for most of December, compared to about 250 new cases per day in early September.
Ted Long, executive director of the city’s Covid-19 Test and Trace Corps, said his team is preparing for this moment. The force has added 1,000 members since the summer and now employs a total of 4,000.
“We have manned, and we are ready to handle all cases through the wave,” said Dr. Long.
Contact tracing remains one of the most important tools for public health officials to counter the spread of Covid-19. The city’s team of contact tracers come into contact with people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and others who may have been exposed to let them know to quarantine themselves to keep others from getting sick. They also offer to help people access medical care and offer to place people in a hotel for free if they cannot isolate at home.
An employee of the Test and Trace Corps in New York City handed out masks and information at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal last month.
Photo:
brendan mcdermid / Reuters
The city’s contact tracking program got off to a rough start, but has improved. During the first weeks of the program in June, only half of the people reached by contact tracers completed the intake process, answering a series of questions, the Test and Trace team said. Now three out of four people complete the intake.
According to the Test and Trace team, only 35% of the people reached through contact tracers provided the names and information of the people they uncovered during the first two weeks of the program in June. Now, 64% of people who complete the intake process share contact information, and about 18% say they had no contacts to share because they haven’t had any recent meaningful personal interactions, said Dr. Long.
Dr. Long said his team focused on hiring contact trackers living in the neighborhoods most affected by the pandemic to build trust in those communities and get more people working together to track down contacts. They also deploy people for personal contact tracking when someone cannot be reached by phone. And at city-run test facilities, contact tracers are available to start the process if someone takes a quick test and tests positive.
Robert Amler, the dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice at New York Medical College, said many of the results from the city’s Test and Trace team are impressive. A response rate of 64% of people who make contacts is good and comparable to other not-so-serious outbreaks of other diseases, he said. The percentage of people who complete the intake – about 75% of the people reached – is “very, very good,” he said.
While New York City has done a good job of reaching out to individuals, the work could get more difficult in the coming weeks, said Amanda Castel, a professor in the department of epidemiology at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
“As we get further into the pandemic, I think we’re seeing some of that Covid fatigue that we’re seeing in people’s behavior, we’re also seeing in terms of being able to reach out to individuals and get really complete information about it. their potential contacts and to reach those contacts, ”said Dr. Castel.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said public schools in New York City will close from Thursday and switch to full distance learning. The city met the 3% Covid-19 seven-day mean positivity threshold for withholding personal instruction. (Originally published Nov. 18) Photo: Wang Ying / Xinhua / Zuma Press
Other parts of the three-state region are already grappling with this aspect. In New Jersey, nearly 80% of people reached through contact searchers refuse to provide the names and information of people who may have been exposed to Covid-19.
The steady increase in infections will also pose a challenge, increasing the workload for the city’s contact tracking team. Jackie Bray, deputy executive director of the Test and Trace Corps in New York City, said the program was packed in the summer to avoid hiring and training on a second wave.
“They’ve had months of on-the-job work done, and they’re really ready when we have a lot more business, and the systems we’re using are more stressed,” said Ms. Bray.
Casey de Pont, who is 35 years old, said she was recently contacted by the city’s contact tracking team after attending a meeting in the backyard in Brooklyn where one person later tested positive for Covid-19. After her initial call with the contact tracer, she later received a care package from the contact tracking program that included hand sanitizer and masks, as well as a Covid-19 home testing kit.
By the time she received the care package, Ms. de Pont had already tested negative in two Covid-19 tests and did not need to use the home test. She plans to stick with it in case she needs a test in the future, she said.
Ms. De Pont said she enjoyed working with the contact seekers and feels it is important for the public to share contacts if they may have been exposed to Covid-19.
“I could understand how invasive it feels, but we are currently in extenuating circumstances,” said Ms de Pont. “So there are some things that are uncomfortable, you just have to do it.”
—Melanie Grayce West contributed to this article.
Write to Joseph De Avila at [email protected]
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