HARRISBURG, Pa. — Contact tracing on COVID-19 positive patients has posed its challenges for the state Department of Health. But, soon, technology could be instrumental in effectively alerting people when they've been in contact with someone with the virus.
A delay in COVID-19 test results has been impacting contact tracing work in the state. With tests taking more than 10 days to confirm a positive or negative results.
"We can't do good contact tracing if we've passed the time a person was infectious and those people need to quarantine," said Cynthia Shields, Allegheny County Department of Human Services Assistant Director of Office of Community Services.
The state is also below the number of contact tracers it would like to have. The goal is 4,000 trained contact tracers, about 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents, but currently there are 654. In the coming weeks, technology could help contact tracing efforts.
"We did research on various apps and have worked with other countries," said Lindsey Mauldin, Department of Health special assistant on contact tracing for Sec. Levine.
While a DOH spokesman told FOX43 a contract for a contact tracing app has yet to be finalized. Mauldin says, the department has been working on an app and expects it to roll out in about a month. The app won't collect locations of users but will use Bluetooth proximity data. When someone tests positive, they will put a special code in their phone that will send alerts to all other devices that were in close proximity.
"It says, 'hello, you've just come in contact with someone for more than 10 or 15 minutes and you might be hearing from your DOH nurse about quarantining for the next 14 days,'" said Mauldin.
Mauldin says, one of the challenges in getting people to quarantine is the fear of losing their jobs. Lawmakers on the Democratic Policy Committee said, they are looking into way to ease that concern for those who should quarantine.