Inslee announces contact tracing strategy

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Gov. Jay Inslee announced today that 1,300 contact tracers have been hired in the state of Washington to track outbreaks and infections of COVID-19 as the state moves toward reopening in the coming weeks and months.

The state has trained 351 National Guard service members, 390 department of licensing employees and 630 employees of the state and local departments of health to conduct contact tracing. Inslee said they are looking to increase that capacity and continue to train and hire more people and volunteers in case there is a sharp spike in cases.

Reopening the economy and lifting restrictions is only possible with a state-wide strategy that incorporates immediate self-isolation at the first sign of symptoms, wide-spread testing and contact tracing, Inslee said.

The strategy starts as people begin to develop or show symptoms of the virus, when they must immediately quarantine themselves and their families, even before they receive a positive test result.
Contact tracers will then contact those who have tested positive and attempt to “trace” their steps before they went into isolation and contact anyone who may have been exposed to them.

One part of this effort is that as restaurants reopen across Washington for dine-in seating in “Phase 2” they will be required to maintain a log of all visitors including their phone numbers and emails and when they came into the restaurant in order to support contact tracing.

Privacy is a significant concern in contract tracing, Inslee said, and those who are contacted about their possible exposure will not be told the identity of who may have exposed them.

One tool the state is developing with the University of Washington, Inslee said, is a smartphone app using location data from Apple and Google that could tell a person if they have come in proximity with someone who has tested positive.