Adapting COVID-19 Contact Tracing Protocols to Accommodate Resource Constraints, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 2021
Seonghye Jeon, Lydia Watson-Lewis, Gabriel Rainisch, Chu-Chuan Chiu, François M. Castonguay, Leah S. Fischer, Patrick K. Moonan, John E. Oeltmann, Bishwa B. Adhikari, Hannah G. Lawman, Martin I. Meltzer · Emerging infectious diseases · 2024
Because of constrained personnel time, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (Philadelphia, PA, USA) adjusted its COVID-19 contact tracing protocol in summer 2021 by prioritizing recent cases and limiting staff time per case. This action reduced required staff hours to prevent each case from 21-30 to 8-11 hours, while maintaining program effectiveness.