CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Pandemic fatigue is one of the reasons why contact tracing will end at health departments responding to positive COVID-19 cases in West Virginia.
Malcolm Lanham, population health director with the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, told MetroNews Thursday most of their calls and texts to people who contract the virus go unanswered.
“People are tired and worn out with the pandemic,” Lanham said. “People are not taking our phone calls or communicating back with us even to get some guidance, so we’re putting in a lot of effort to calling those folks.”
The state Health Department of Health and Human Resources this week issued new guidance to local health departments to stop investigations and contact tracing. The new recommendations align with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
“We are trying different efforts as it has been close to two years and it is getting difficulty to contact everyone,” state Health Officer Dr. Ayne Amjad said during Wednesday’s coronavirus media briefing with state officials.
Efforts to reach older residents will continue though, Amjad said.
“You might not be getting called or we are trying to contact people who maybe don’t get text messages, maybe some older people who don’t use cell phones,” she said. “These are efforts to try and drive public health messaging to get people notified.”
Staffing shortages aren’t as big of a problem as the amount of positive cases they hear about per day, Lanham said.
“We’ve had days where we’ve had over 400 new cases a day coming in in the last month or so. Once we get a case assigned, we have 24 hours to reach out to them, so we’ve been attempting that,” he said.
The DHHR wrote in a statement to local health departments, “This pivot is an important step as the pandemic moves toward becoming an endemic in West Virginia, and the world.”
If you test positive for COVID-19, public health departments will promote self-care education to all positive cases but will no longer conduct universal case investigation and contact tracing, release from quarantine, or return to work letters.
Lanham said despite their own challenges with staffing at the health department, they would continue to follow what the state and CDC recommend.
“If the state had not reduced the expectations for case investigations and contact tracing, then we would still be doing what we’re tasked to do anyway,” he said.
Health officials said it’s recommended to follow CDC guidance if you test positive for COVID or have been exposed to the virus.