As we've covered previously, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that "contact tracing is part of the process of supporting patients and warning contacts of exposure in order to stop chains of transmission. In contact tracing, public health staff first work with a COVID-19 patient to help them recall everyone with whom they have had close contact during the timeframe while they may have been infectious. They then begin contact tracing by warning these exposed individuals of their potential exposure as rapidly and sensitively as possible. For contact tracing to work, communication with and the trust of the general public is crucial. Technology also plays a key role. But contact between people can come in many forms, for varying lengths of time. Should a romantic partner be contacted? Or a coworker, Uber driver, neighbor, or cashier? A clear definition of close contact is necessary before the process can begin in earnest.
Someone who was within six feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from two days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, two days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated.
If someone has been exposed to a COVID-19 patient several times within a 24-hour period, the time spent in close proximity is added together. So three five-minute face-to-face conversations would count as a 15-minute exposure.
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Notably, the CDC does not factor in whether the COVID-19 patient was wearing PPE or a face mask. "Because the general public has not received training on proper selection and use of respiratory PPE, such as an N95, the determination of close contact should generally be made irrespective of whether the contact was wearing respiratory PPE," the agency notes. "At this time, differential determination of close contact for those using fabric face coverings is not recommended."
Once a patient's close contacts are identified, public health staff need to reach out to them to notify them of the potential disease exposure and advise them to seek testing and to self-quarantine in the meantime. This notification process is often a time- and labor-intensive process, especially given federal privacy and security standards. Contact tracing and asymptomatic surveillance testing are most effective when utilizing an seamless, secure, and scalable method of communication.
SEE ALSO: How the Paubox Email API Can Help Fight COVID-19 Fortunately, technology tools like the Paubox Email API allow healthcare providers to safely send HIPAA compliant email containing test results and other protected health information ( PHI) at scale. The Paubox Email API encrypts every email by default. Our patented technology ensures HIPAA compliance even when an email recipient doesn’t support encryption. With our HITRUST CSF certified product, patients receive encrypted emails directly to their inboxes—no passwords or portals required. Easy to implement with clear documentation, a developer’s experience is as seamless as the email recipient’s.
SEE ALSO: Why Healthcare Businesses Choose the Paubox Email API