Factors such as testing delays, distrust and embarrassment are combining to make efforts to contain COVID-19 more difficult in the state that now has the highest number of cases in the nation.
Daniel Parker, an assistant professor of public health at the University of California Irvine, who is training tracers in Orange County, said they really need to get in touch with someone’s contact within three days of a positive test result to intercept transmission of the disease. But if it takes a week or more to get the results, “you have to question whether it’s worthwhile at that point,” he said.
In Los Angeles County, which aims to reach 4,000 people a day in its contact tracing program, officials recently started offering $20 gift cards to people who participate. Officials announced the new incentive after calculating that nearly half of the people who tested positive would not share their close contacts.
Controlling the spread of the disease is especially critical for people of color who have been disproportionately
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