Contact Tracing Programs Around the Country End Operations Based on CDC Guidance
The CDC updated COVID-19 guidance on Feb. 28 to no longer require universal case investigation and contact tracing, except in high-risk settings like long-term care facilities and jails.
Now, many states have announced their contact tracing programs will soon end.
Changes to the CDC guidance were made based on research regarding new variants, like omicron, which have shorter incubation periods than previous variants, and based on the effectiveness of current vaccines.
Contact tracing is a process of identifying a positive COVID-19 case and using alerts or messaging services to notify those who might have come into contact with the infected person.
In New York City, a contact tracing program known as the Test & Trace Corps was started in June 2020 and will end tracing efforts by April 30, according to officials from the program on Monday.
Health departments in Oregon and Maine have also ended almost all contact tracing operations over the last few weeks.
In Vermont, the Department of Health recently announced only 40 workers will be in their contact tracing program, where at the height of the pandemic there were 200 or more workers.
In North Carolina and Indiana individual contact tracing and exclusion from school is also no longer recommended statewide in K-12 schools.
Yale University and Georgetown University have announced their contact tracing programs will remain in place for students.
The Yale Contact Tracing Team even updated their webpage on Feb. 23 with new contact tracing requests from students, and 94% of the university members who tested positive during the week of March 2 received interviews from the team.
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