The Allegheny Health Department says the volume of new cases means contact tracing won’t happen as quickly.Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 spoke with Erin Tobias.She woke up last Saturday feeling unwell. She got a test that night and learned a few days later that she was positive for COVID-19 and got a call from a contact tracer about an hour later.”We were probably on the phone for about 30 minutes, maybe. And they just wanted to trace back almost my every move from the last two weeks,” Tobias said.While they were interested in everything she’d done the last few weeks, she said the contact tracer really honed in on the 48 hours before she started feeling symptoms, and who she may have been in contact with.Tobias plays softball and told tracers the names of people she’d been close to. The health department defined a close contact as someone who’d been within six feet for more than 15 minutes.They also asked about children who may have been nearby. Tobias thought the implication was that younger children are less likely to abide by social distancing.Tobias says she hasn’t traveled out of state and hadn’t gone into bars or restaurants for long periods of time, adding that her family wore masks too.”They asked if I had traveled, they had asked if I’d been in any large groups, gatherings of 25 or more, any events, had I gone to any restaurant, public spaces, stores. This, that and the other thing,” Tobias said.Tobias said she trusted the health department with all this information, saying it was for the greater good.”Although part of me thinks this is not that bad anymore and people are OK, you still, once you do have it, you feel like ‘oh my gosh’ who could have I infected, or I hope that my case doesn’t travel around further to someone that would get it worse than me. So I was nervous to tell people, but I knew I wasn’t going to get any harsh backlash,” she said.Here’s a link to the latest guidance from the health department on contact tracing.
PITTSBURGH —
The Allegheny Health Department says the volume of new cases means contact tracing won’t happen as quickly.
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 spoke with Erin Tobias.
She woke up last Saturday feeling unwell. She got a test that night and learned a few days later that she was positive for COVID-19 and got a call from a contact tracer about an hour later.
“We were probably on the phone for about 30 minutes, maybe. And they just wanted to trace back almost my every move from the last two weeks,” Tobias said.
While they were interested in everything she’d done the last few weeks, she said the contact tracer really honed in on the 48 hours before she started feeling symptoms, and who she may have been in contact with.
Tobias plays softball and told tracers the names of people she’d been close to. The health department defined a close contact as someone who’d been within six feet for more than 15 minutes.
They also asked about children who may have been nearby. Tobias thought the implication was that younger children are less likely to abide by social distancing.
Tobias says she hasn’t traveled out of state and hadn’t gone into bars or restaurants for long periods of time, adding that her family wore masks too.
“They asked if I had traveled, they had asked if I’d been in any large groups, gatherings of 25 or more, any events, had I gone to any restaurant, public spaces, stores. This, that and the other thing,” Tobias said.
Tobias said she trusted the health department with all this information, saying it was for the greater good.
“Although part of me thinks this is not that bad anymore and people are OK, you still, once you do have it, you feel like ‘oh my gosh’ who could have I infected, or I hope that my case doesn’t travel around further to someone that would get it worse than me. So I was nervous to tell people, but I knew I wasn’t going to get any harsh backlash,” she said.
Here’s a link to the latest guidance from the health department on contact tracing.
