Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The race is on to meet the seven guidelines required for allowing the reopening process to begin and bring a gradual and regional end to the coronavirus quarantine.
One of the seven keys to reopening is the process known as 'contact tracing', a method of quickly identifying potential new cases of COVID-19 and getting patients into isolation as a means to stop the spread of the virus. The CDC guideline needed to be met is 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 population.
In Erie County, Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein Saturday outlined the county's extensive contact tracing program.
"We have a little army of contact tracers and that army can expand or shrink depending on the number of cases we receive each day," said Burstein during an extensive media call on the subject. Burstein explained the tracers work to communicate with so-called 'index cases' to establish their close contacts and alert them to potential exposure.
The tracers are looking for all contacts with index cases, COVID-19 positive individuals, who were within close proximity of less than six feet for at least 15-minutes and without a mask. The contact exposure period is two days prior to symptoms or two days prior to a positive COVID-19 test.
Once the contacts are determined, they are alerted to the potential exposure and told to self-isolate and strongly encouraged to be tested for COVID-19.
"Because of our New York Pause, fortunately many of these close contacts are living within the same household so it's very easy to get a hold of them," said Burstein.
When the close contacts aren't immediate family members of cohabitants of a home, confidential notification is made alerting individuals that they may have come in contact with a COVID-19 positive person.
