Contact tracing slows the spread of COVID-19
Contact tracing helps protect you, your family, and your community by:
Letting people know they may have been exposed to COVID-19 and should monitor their health for signs and symptoms of COVID-19.
Helping people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 get tested.
Asking people to self-isolate if they have COVID-19 or self-quarantine if they are a close contact.
During contact tracing, the health department staff will not ask you for:
Money
Social Security number
Bank account information
Salary information
Credit card numbers
Contact tracing for COVID-19 works best with everyday preventive actions
You can take everyday preventive actions to slow the spread of COVID-19. Doing so is especially important until a vaccine or better treatments become widely available.
What you can expect to happen
If you were around someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, someone from the health department may call you.
Stay home and away from others:
Stay away from others, especially people who are at higher risk for getting very sick from COVID-19, such as older adults and people with other medical conditions, if possible.
If you have been around someone with COVID-19, stay home and away from others for 14 days (self-quarantine) after your last contact with that person and monitor your health.
If you have a fever, cough or other symptoms of COVID-19, stay home and away from others (except to get medical care or testing, if recommended).
If you need support or assistance while in self-quarantine, your health department or community organizations may be able to provide assistance.
For COVID-19, a close contact is anyone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. An infected person can spread COVID-19 starting from 48 hours (or 2 days) before the person had any symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19.
Monitor your health:
Watch for fever, cough, shortness of breath, or other symptoms of COVID-19. Remember, symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to COVID-19.
Answer the phone call from the health department. If someone from the health department calls you, answer the call to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in your community.
Discussions with health department staff are confidential. This means that your personal and medical information will be kept private and only shared with those who may need to know, like your health care provider.
Your name will not be shared with those you came in contact with. The health department will only notify people you were in close contact with (within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes) that they might have been exposed to COVID-19.
Tell the health department staff if you develop symptoms of COVID-19. If your symptoms worsen or become severe, you should seek emergency medical care.
Did you know? Health department staff may use case management or exposure notification digital tools to help with contact tracing. Learn more about these types of digital tools.
Source: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/contact-tracing.html