COLUMBIA: As central Missouri experiences an increase in coronavirus cases, the Department of Health is struggling to keep up with contact tracking.
The county reported 39 cases Thursday, the highest number in a single day during the entire pandemic. On Tuesday, the state of Missouri exceeded 1,000 deaths.
“Our contact search efforts have been quickly overwhelmed and positivity rates continue to rise,” Stephanie Browning, director of Public Health and Human Services for Columbia / Boone County, said in a press release on Thursday.
The positivity rate, the percentage of tests showing positive results, increased to 12% this week, according to a press release. The first week of May was 0.4%.
The Health Department has set a goal of trying to contact each patient within 24 hours after being notified of the positive test, said Scott Clardy, deputy director of the department. After that, the department strives to notify anyone who may have come in contact with that patient while they were contagious.
“That has been our goal so far,” he said. “I don’t know if we can get to that, without a doubt, with all the cases we have (Thursday).”
Clardy said the department was caught until Monday by communicating with COVID-19 patients and their recent contacts. However, Thursday’s 39 cases have overwhelmed the department’s contact trackers. She said realistically, the department may have to change its goal to reach patients within 48 hours instead of 24.
The Health Department has also had to reduce its records with patients. At the start of the pandemic, patients were contacted daily for all of their isolation. Now, with so many active cases, department staff only perform daily check-ups on patients with severe symptoms, or if the patient has difficulty buying food, paying rent, or meeting needs of that nature.
To handle the increased workload, the department has been training more of its staff to track contacts, Clardy said. They have brought in retirees from the department and people from the community with experience in public health. Starting next week, they plan to train city staff outside the department to help him.
Another way the department is trying to alleviate the problem is through a new data collection software program called REDCap. The software provides contact trackers with an easy-to-view database of all the people who need to contact. A text message feature that allows the software to automatically send text messages to contacts and patients so contact trackers do not have to do so is not yet operational.
Too social
Clardy attributes the recent increase in COVID-19 cases to expired social distancing.
“The real problem is that we have people in the community, particularly people under the age of 30, who are not practicing good social distancing,” said Clardy. “They are getting together with their friends, and the next thing you know is that the eight people or the 10 people have symptoms and maybe a positive result, and in the meantime, they have come out and been with other people who may end up testing positive.”
Clardy emphasized the need for improvement in social settings.
“I realize that’s difficult to do with household contacts, but going out and socializing and drinking from the same cup and hugging and touching each other, those are not things we need to do right now,” he said.
Clardy said young people who get the virus is a more serious problem than meets the eye because they generally don’t get very sick.
“The problem is that because they don’t have symptoms or their symptoms are mild, and they think they might be (having) allergies, they end up spending more time with other people who could be very vulnerable to poor results.” he said.
That would include grandparents, a relative with diabetes, or a friend with a compromised immune system.
“So, (young people who get the virus) are not just a problem for that group,” he said. “It is a problem for everyone.”
Clardy also believes that people should be more careful while waiting for test results. People should go home and isolate themselves until they get their results, Clardy said, and if those results are positive, they should remain isolated until the Health Department can call them and give them further instructions. He said it would be very helpful if people with positive results started making a list of anyone they might have had contact with in the past few days.
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