Student Insights from the Field: Managing a Volunteer Contact Tracing Program in Summer 2020 

In Summer 2020, when state and local governments were assessing the risk of reopening businesses and schools after the first wave of COVID-19, one of the most important considerations they weighed was contact tracing capacity. As we enter the second year of this global pandemic, the ability to identify and engage contacts of each positive COVID-19 test case continues to be a critical measure required to contain the virus in order to avoid lockdowns and fatalities. To effectively contain outbreaks, more than 90% of cases should be traced within 48 hours. Achieving this capacity requires significant investment in technology and personnel. Although contact tracing has been fundamental to infectious disease control since the 1920s, no public health department had ever implemented a program at the scale necessary to combat COVID-19. States, municipalities, and even schools have had to rapidly invest in resources to build and maintain expensive contact tracing programs during a period of massive budget and capacity shortfalls. One way to significantly reduce the monetary cost of these programs is to implement a volunteer contact tracing workforce. Connecticut’s leadership recognized that thousands of people across the state were reaching out in search of opportunities to assist during this once-in-a-generation crisis. With resources that are free and widely available, community members could be trained and deployed as contact tracers in a matter of two weeks, granting a tangible way for residents to fulfill their desire to serve their community and, consequentially, fight the pandemic.