Efficacy of a student-led community contact tracing program partnered with an academic medical center during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

PURPOSE

Contact tracing has proven successful at controlling coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) globally, and the Center for Health Security has recommended that the United States add 100,000 contact tracers to the current workforce.

METHODS

To address gaps in local contact tracing, health professional students partnered with their academic institution to conduct contact tracing for all COVID-19 cases diagnosed onsite, which included identifying and reaching their contacts, educating participants, and providing social resources to support effective quarantine and isolation.

RESULTS

From March 24 to May 28, 536 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases were contacted and reported an average of 2.6 contacts. Contacts were informed of their exposure, asked to quarantine, and monitored for the onset of symptoms. Callers reached 94% of cases and 84% of contacts. Seventy-four percent of cases reported at least one contact. Household members had higher rates of reporting symptoms (odds ratio, 1.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.19-2.28). The average test turnaround time decreased from 21.8 days for the first patients of this program to 2.3 days on the eleventh week.

CONCLUSIONS

This provides evidence for the untapped potential of community contact tracing to respond to regional needs, confront barriers to effective quarantine, and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.