A recent steep increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Audrain County has led the Audrain County Health Department to modify how contact tracing will be managed. ACHD is asking those that are positive for the virus to take immediate action to isolate and inform individuals that they have been in close contact with.

As of Wednesday there were 176 active cases in the county, with 142 in Mexico and 15 in Vandalia. There were 82 cases on average in the first week of November.

The increase in cases has created significant workload that requires new tracing measures in order to expedite communication with close contacts. This new process is intended to help stop people from unknowingly spreading the virus.

The new process will begin on Dec. 16.

“The disease portion of COVID-19 is just one piece of this puzzle,” said ACHD Administrator and CEO Craig Brace. “Another piece is the number of people a patient that tests positive in the previous 48 hours before the first symptoms encounters. That number can be a few to a group.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic in April in Audrain County, contact tracers at ACHD have devoted the majority of their working day to following up with not only the patients affected by COVID-19, but those that came in contact with the patient who now find themselves at risk and having to quarantine.

There are only five full time nurses on the ACHD staff. Brace says that each is assigned a certain number of patients and their contacts to follow through the course of the disease. If a contact becomes sick, the nurses must also trace their contacts.

“The rapid rise in COVID-19 cases has made the current approach to contact tracing unsustainable,” Brace explained. “In the best interest of individuals testing positive and the county at large, a change in our approach is needed.”

ACHD Communicable Disease Registered Nurse Katie Swaim points out the change will benefit both the ACHD, its mission and the patient.

“With patients getting the instructions at the time of testing or mailed to them once we are notified of a positive result, they will no longer have to wait for a call from the health department to know what to do,” she said.

Brace says the ACHD is not just leaving those that are identified as close contacts out in the cold by not calling them through this new strategy.

“We will be providing testing sites and doctors offices a flyer to give to those getting tested that will have instructions on how the patient and their identified contacts should quarantine and care for themselves,” he said. “We are just as interested in getting those positive patients well and quelling the spread of the virus as much as possible through them contacting their close contacts as all residents are.”