ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Investigators in the Orange County COVID-19 Response Center work hard to trace the county's positive infections.
What You Need To Know
- Orange County COVID-19 Response Center helps trace infections
- Investigators say self-contact tracing is also important to track the spread of the coronavirus
- Related: Health Leader: UCF-Area Bar Hopping Makes it Hard to Contact Trace
But it is difficult to get to every person, so it is also important for the infected to do their own self-contact tracing to help fight the coronavirus, county officials said.
Eric Schwalbach believes he caught COVID-19 on a Father's Day trip to New Smyrna Beach in June.
"You just knew it wasn't the flu," he said. "It was serious."
Even though — or perhaps because — it was a peak time for positive cases in Central Florida, Schwalbach said he was never contacted by the Department of Health after testing positive himself.
"Nobody contacted me about contract tracing because there was no way to contact trace, because there were so many people who had it," he said.
In Orange County at the time, the positivity rates were well above the 5% investigators use to gauge the amount of control they have over the spread of the virus.
Department of Health officials said they do their best to get as much information as possible from patients who test positive, either at a hospital, physician's office, or laboratory.
"We also inquire about how they may have acquired that illness and we also ask who else may be at risk for acquiring COVID-19," said Orange County DOH epidemiologist Charles Letizia.
Contact tracing, though, can create some holes in the overall flow of information, Schwalbach said.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't let anyone know who I went to New Smyrna with because I don't, I didn't know those strangers that were at the same restaurant," he said.
Orange County Department of Health Epidemiology Program Manager Alvina Chu said there are contingency plans for cases like that.
"Whenever we have our primary contact tracers and case investigators do the primary interview, they try to get as many exposures in the 14-day window before the person gets sick, and see if there's any common links," she said.
Information is key, Chu said, as is being honest and transparent with those around you.
"Contract tracing does work, even if it's just self-contact tracing," she said.