San Diego County shrinks its COVID-19 contact tracing program
For more than two years, county contact tracers made an effort to interview every resident who tested positive for coronavirus infection. But that changed Friday, with only about one in 10 residents getting calls as the outreach program shifts to a more targeted mode that prioritizes those deemed to be at highest risk of severe COVID-19-related illness.
But those days are long gone. As the recent Omicron surge attests, coronavirus is capable of generating more than 16,000 new cases in a single day just in San Diego County. So many infections all at once made it impossible to reach all new cases quickly enough to make a difference. Omicron, the experts argue, is simply too easily spread and now too widespread for there to be any realistic hope of interviewing and individually advising each and every person who gets infected. That’s especially the case, the joint statement says, since many now take home tests whose results are never reported to public health departments.
Somewhere between 10 percent and 12 percent of new cases, Shah said, are expected to meet the new high-risk criteria. With the health department receiving notifications of 500 to 900 new cases per day, the number that would need to be interviewed is likely to be in the range of 50 to 100 per day, at least in the short term. Demand would drop further if the number of new cases drops further still.
“I think what we have to show for that is not only the highest vaccination rate in Southern California, but also the lowest mortality rate in Southern California,” Johnson said.
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