The lowering numbers of people infected with COVID-19 in Pettis County are due in large measure to identifying and quarantining those exposed to the virus through the process of contact tracing.
When a person tests positive in Pettis County the task of contract tracing is handled by the Pettis County Health Center. JoAnn Martin is the Administrator of Pettis County Health, and her team is responsible for identifying those people who are close contacts to a person reported to be infected.
“When a report of a positive case is received by the Health Center, we contact the person and ask where they have been for two days before they became sick, who lives in their house and who they have been in contact with,” said Martin. “A close contact is a person who has been within 6 feet of the positive case for more than 15-30 minutes without a mask or other type of barrier.”
This includes people at work, family and friends. All the people who fit that category are then called and placed into quarantine. Martin’s staff asks that they contact their employer so they can do contact tracing within the work environment. Employers have been provided information on how to handle a positive employee in the workplace.
“We try very hard not to release the information about a positive case that would allow that person to be identified,” Martin added. “We believe that no one would want identifying information released about them. We are required to protect the personal and health information of those we are following.”
The staff from the Health Center checks on everyone in quarantine and positive cases on a regular basis. They ask each person to check their temperature twice a day and let Pettis Health know if they are developing any symptoms. Contract tracing and monitoring have happened since the first case in Pettis County on March 26, 2020.
Quarantine is the term for people who have been exposed but are not sick but are required to stay home. Isolation is the term for people who are sick and required to stay home. Experts say people can spread the disease from two days before they become sick to 14 days after they become sick. The length of quarantine is 14 days from the last contact with a positive case. This period of time helps stop the spread of the disease, particularly among those who may not have symptoms. Failure to stay home during isolation or quarantine is against the law.
“In our process of contact tracing we receive reports of positive tests from the hospital and other laboratory providers such as through Katy Trail (Community Health), through the long-term care facilities, all the places that were doing testing,” said Martin. “They would come to us either originally through paper forms or we are able to get them online from both the hospital and through the state system. When that information is provided, we have our case investigator call those positive cases after that we identify contacts and reach out to them.”
Vanessa Edwards is one of the contact tracers Martin relies on.
“My supervisor JoAnn hands me a list of patients that have become positive for COVID and then I contact them,” said Edwards. “I usually have the day that they were tested, and their demographics and I give them a call.”
Edwards and other contact tracers work in cubicles in the back of Pettis County Health Center at 911 E. 16th St. in Sedalia. Lists of people who test positive over the weekend will be contacted Monday or Tuesday at the latest.
“I ask them about their symptoms and any medical conditions that they may have and then I give them their quarantine dates with start to finish days then I go over any household contacts or any outside contacts that they may have had then we document them on a sheet,” Edwards explained.
Martin said getting accurate contacts from positive cases is frequently difficult.
“Some people may know someone's name, but they don't know how to get in touch with them,” she said. “It might be just a casual acquaintance they happen to be with at a gathering, but they don't know their phone number, they don't know their date of birth and so that makes it challenging for us to contact those folks.”
For this reason, Martin asks that if someone knows that they are positive to reach out to their contacts let them know that they are positive. Then ask those folks to call the Pettis County Health Center.
“If it's someone within the family we do the contact tracing while we're doing the case investigating,” Martin added.
Pettis County Health says the work is easier now that cases are past their peak investigation time in early November when eighth to nine contact tracers were necessary.
“We are now down to getting 10 to 20 cases a day, so it has made the process of case investigation and contact tracing easier not having to have everybody involved,” Martin said.
Contact tracers like Edwards have learned much about COVID transmission and how to prevent new infections. Edwards has two pieces of advice that would make her work much easier: “When they check-in at the hospital or urgent care or wherever they're getting tested just make sure that their phone numbers are correct and their addresses are correct so I'm able to contact them,” Edwards pleaded. “And wear a mask or stay home.”
The Pettis County Health Center website at www.pettiscountyhealthcenter.com and Facebook page are reliable sources of local COVID-19 information. More information can be found from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services at www.health.mo.gov as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov.
