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Contact tracing nearing "impossible" due to surge in COVID-19 cases

West Michigan health departments ask residents to let workplaces, schools, and close contacts know if an individual tests positive.

MICHIGAN, USA — As cases of COVID-19 soar to new highs, contract tracing is becoming increasingly difficult for West Michigan health departments. 

Much of that is due to the sheer volume of positive cases, but also there are more close contacts for each case than earlier this year. 

"Contact tracing has been strained, and almost to the point where it is impossible to contact trace all of the identify close contacts," said Kathy Moore, Public Health Director for Muskegon County, "All these different episodes of close contact. We back up a little and say, 'Now, did you just tell me 12 people?'"

Contact tracing is a vital part of illness mitigation as it curbs community spread. 

RELATED: Michigan hospital leaders sound alarm on COVID-19 spread, call on people to mask up, social distance

Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties have all added staff to keep up with the contact tracing demand. Kent County has pulled workers from other divisions in the department, and brought back workers from earlier this year. 

"They do a good job at keeping up, but by no means are they able to keep up with 600 cases a day," said Brian Hartl, the supervising epidemiologist for the Kent County Health Department, "Last weekend, I think we had 550, 500, and 640 cases come in over a three day span. And, you know, that's nearly 2,000 cases in three days, and we just can't do that."

Ottawa County's deputy health administrator, Marcia Mansaray, is asking residents to not wait for test results to isolate, and don't wait for a call from the Health Department if an individual feels sick. She said there are delays in the contract tracing system by nature. That's because by the time someone is infected, shows symptoms, gets tested, gets results back from test, and the health department is aware of the positive case, that person has been contagious for multiple days. 

"Well, the most serious repercussions are that the virus continues to spread," said Mansaray, "And we will see increasing hospitalizations, we already are. That's why we're seeing the surge that we are, is that we're not preventing this well enough. We're not staying home, we're not staying away, we're not wearing our mask."

Mansaray said they are averaging one death a day in Ottawa county the past few weeks, which is "too many."

RELATED: Fauci: Wear a mask, stay distant to avoid lockdown

In Muskegon County, Moore said even her staff are being affected by the virus, adding to an already overwhelming contact tracing workload. 

"We are finding now more than ever, our staff are negatively impacted either by positive case, or being quarantined, or child related concern," said Moore.

She suggested residents to use their hospital portal to check testing results and notify close contacts of infection. The hospitals send batched information to the health department, which helps out with tracing. 

RELATED: Contact-tracing rules for restaurants, bars go into effect Monday

Moore also said they have not been able to utilize restaurant contact tracing lists required by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. 

In contrast, Mansaray from Ottawa County said the restaurant lists are useful to identify any outbreaks.

"We appreciate tremendously when places are doing that," said Mansaray, "because at least it's it's another way to notify people."

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