COVID-19 Contact Tracing: What to expect.
How will they contact me?
A contact tracer may first text or call you. If the contact tracer gets your voicemail, they will leave a phone number and ask for a call back. Members of our contact tracing team in Walla Walla County speak English and Spanish.
What questions will they ask?
A contact tracer will ask questions about your COVID-19 illness, your exposure to COVID-19, and people you have been in close contact with. They will also give you information to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 to others.
We will not ask for…
A contract tracer will ask for your date of birth, address, race, and ethnicity. Contact tracers will never ask for or write down your immigration status, social security number, or ask for banking or financial information or any payment.
The phone call might go something like this...
“Hi Kelly. My name is Amy. I’m calling from the Community Health Department. We just got test results from Providence. You tested positive for COVID-19…”
What do you feel in that moment?
Fear. Confirmation of a suspicion. Overwhelmed.
What happens next?
The Community Health Worker will ask about your current symptoms and talk about other symptoms you might expect. Next, they’ll talk about your medical history to help identify anything that could put you at risk for a more severe case or complications from the virus. Our team of nurses is here to help you. If you have questions, please ask!
Finally, you’ll talk about who you have been in contact with during the time-period you were likely contagious. It is important to make sure friends, family members and co-workers who were potentially exposed can get the help they might need. The health worker won’t tell them who tested positive for COVID, just that they might have been exposed.
Then Community Health Workers will check in with you daily for awhile, to make sure you are okay and to see if you need any help. Sometimes we help people get prescriptions, food, or other things they need so they can stay home and focus on getting better.
The Community Health Department and our local heath care providers care about helping you get better and stopping COVID-19 from spreading to your loved ones, friends and our community.