Swamped by thousands of calls a day, contact tracing programs have been forced to adapt. Even though they can't call everyone, experts say it's too early to give up on this pillar of disease control.
When his friends started to get sick after a week of parties, Michael Donnelly started keeping track. His work — and his community's willingness to help — led the CDC to a major pandemic discovery.
Despite a massive hiring push last year, health agencies around the U.S. failed to contain the pandemic through contact tracing. Health leaders reflect on lessons learned and what's next.
Struggling to keep up with a COVID-19 surge in Michigan, overwhelmed local health departments turned to schools, and recruited principals and teachers as supplemental contact tracers.
If we want life to get back to normal in the U.S., public health experts say we can't just rely on COVID-19 vaccines. Other tools like contact tracing and care coordination are crucial too.
The government had previously said data collected by its widely used app would only be used for contact tracing. The program is seen as a key part of the country's success in managing the coronavirus.
NPR's latest survey finds the contact tracing workforce now tops 70,000, a dramatic increase in the last two months. But to meet the growing demand, new federal funding will be key.
The judge said he was "left with no choice" but to impose a countywide curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. He noted El Paso County has seen a 160% increase in its positivity rate in the last three weeks.
The number of people working to stop COVID-19 outbreaks from spreading is far from the level needed in most states, according to a new NPR survey and analysis. Find out how your state is doing.
The coronavirus outbreak originating at the White House may have spread cases to dozens of other communities. But tracing related cases and stopping further spread is extremely challenging.
The President's diagnosis calls for contact tracing on a massive scale. Luckily, not everyone President Trump saw this week with is a high risk exposure. Here's who is.
"I suspect many senior members of the government are going to have to go into quarantine," says Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
A loved one's health could depend on the truth if you get a call from a real contact tracer about your exposure to the coronavirus. But beware impostors who ask you for payment or to click on a link.
The information includes details on where transmission is happening most. If more states shared this widely, it could shape policy and save lives, health researchers say.
