ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — As COVID-19 cases in the St. Louis area continue to head in the wrong direction, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health is planning to hire more contact tracers.
The department said it’s all hands on deck. So far, the county has hired 60 contact tracers and brought in restaurant inspectors and other people from within the department to help.
“This has been the most insane couple of months that I think any of us has ever experienced,” epidemiologist Amanda Brzozwski said.
Brzozwski said it’s difficult to keep up with the volume of cases, and the ongoing testing delay is complicating the contact tracing efforts. A patient could expose more people before they know whether they have the virus.
“It is not helpful if we get in touch with a contact three weeks after they were exposed. We need to get in touch with cases and contacts in time for our discussion with them to have an impact on their lives, which then has an impact on the community,” Brzozwski said.
She said it’s important for anyone who’s tested to quarantine until they get their results.
Brzozwski also wants people to take mental notes of their “close contacts,” just in case there’s an exposure. A close contact is defined as anyone you spend time with within a six-foot distance for 15 minutes or longer – even if you’re wearing masks --- or anyone whose respiratory droplets you come into contact with. That happens during drink sharing, kissing or shouting, Brzozwski said.
If you get a call from the health department letting you know you’ve possibly been exposed, knowing who you’ve been around will help the contact tracers do their work of identifying and quarantining more possible cases. And on that note – Brzozwski says please answer the phone if the health department calls.
As the region reopens, the health department is noticing more mass exposures, especially at businesses.
“We had one case expose 50 or 60 people at a business,” she said.
That’s why it’s more important that ever to wear masks and keep socially distant, she said.
“It's something we have to do. We really empathize with everybody. We’re tired of this and businesses are tired of this. And it doesn’t appear it’s going away any time soon,” she said.
