Task Gets Tougher For Contact Tracers Amid Rapid COVID Spread

Medical student Rebecca DeCarlo talks on the phone conducting a follow-up interview with a person being monitored by the Georgia Department of Public Health for infection or exposure to the coronavirus at the state agency’s district office in Savannah, Georgia, last spring.

Russ Bynum / Associated Press

With COVID-19 cases spiking, it’s basically impossible for the state’s contact tracers to reach the burgeoning number of people potentially exposed to the disease.

That’s the assessment of the state agency running the program.

“With new cases hovering around 10,000 daily, it is not possible to keep up with them,’’ Nancy Nydam, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Public Health, told GHN recently.