Montgomery County contact tracers, including Neil Lader, use a spreadsheet as the main weapon in their efforts to stay on top of every COVID-19 case in the county, writes Laura Benshoff for the WHYY.
Each morning, Lader opens up a spreadsheet with a list of names and data points and embarks on another busy day of chasing down the virus.
He adds newly arrived names of infected people and then starts calling. He goes through several groups of questions with each person and obtains a list of names and contact details of the people they were in contact with.
One of the hardest tasks for him and the other 19 contact traces hired and trained by the county is convincing people to trust them.
“We’ve been hearing some concerns about wanting to release other people’s information or identifying that they haven’t been doing what is recommended by the governor,” said Montgomery County Office of Public Health’s Michel Masters.
He added that until a viable vaccine and medication for treatment is found, contact tracing remains the best tactic for stopping its spread.
Read more about contact tracing at the WHYY by clicking here.
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