Monroe County fire rescue to support local department of health with contact tracing

MONROE COUNTY, FL – Contact tracing has been a core disease control measure employed by local and state health department personnel for decades. This key strategy has helped to significantly prevent the spread of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. The Florida Department of Health in Monroe County (FDOH-Monroe County) currently has eight contact tracers and is working to expand contact tracing efforts countywide in partnership with Monroe County Fire Rescue and the municipal fire departments.

Contact tracing involves strategic planning and an extensive epidemiological investigation to identify individuals who may have had close contact with the virus. Epidemiologists at FDOH-Monroe County have, since the beginning of this crisis, been conducting in-depth contact tracing with all patients under investigation and all confirmed cases of COVID-19.

According to Angela Giaquinto, epidemiologist for the FDOH-Monroe County, the process includes reaching out to individuals who have been swabbed for COVID-19 prior to them receiving their lab results to ensure they are isolating while waiting for test results to come back.

For positive COVID-19 cases, an in-depth interview and timeline is created. From there, the contact tracers have the individual identify who they have been in close contact with 48 hours before symptoms started. Close contacts are notified and asked to monitor themselves for symptoms and isolate at home for 14 days since their last contact with the confirmed case.

“Our goal is to make contact with the case the day of notification,” said Ysla Veliz, Lead Epidemiologist for the FDOH-Monroe County. This ensures the person understands the important parameters of mandatory self-isolation. “Each case is called every day or paid a field visit, depending on the circumstances, to check on their status of symptoms and if they are adhering to their self-isolation orders.”

For more information about contact tracing, visit http://monroe.floridahealth.gov and click “About Contact Tracing.” The State of Florida also tracks all data from epidemiological investigations in each county and uses the data to aid in response efforts of COVID-19.

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