13 States Make Contact Tracing Data Public. Here’s What They’re Learning

When everyone who tests positive for coronavirus in your community gets a call from a public health worker asking them about their contacts, and those contacts are then asked to quarantine, that can be a powerful way to keep the virus from spreading.

But contact tracing can do more than that: At scale, the data gathered in those calls also offers vital information about where transmission is happening in a community. That data can drive policy, and even guide individuals in assessing what’s more or less safe to go out and do in their communities.

NPR has surveyed the health departments of all U.S. states and territories three times to ask about contact tracing capacity — first in April, then again in mid-June, and most recently in late July. The latest survey, done in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, also asked states about contact tracing dаta: what they were gathering and what they’re making public.

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The vast majority of states are gathering data from their contact tracing programs, but only 13 respondents reported that the data was posted on a government website. Eight states reported that their contact tracing staff numbers were publicly available.

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The data states are gathering includes how many contacts are reached and how quickly and where people were exposed — whether it was out in public or at home. The few states analyzing and sharing this data represent «a good start, says Crystal Watson, senior scholar at the Center for Health Security who collaborated with NPR on the survey. «It’s a little bit scattershot right now.

What’s needed, she says, is for states to share contact tracing data «more, more widely and more consistently.

She acknowledges that states are limited by a lack of resources. «Health departments are really stretched to the limit right now, and it’s not a trivial thing to put together the data infrastructure to report [this data] publicly, Watson says. Some federal guidance on «what states should be aiming to report publicly could be really helpful, she says.

In the meantime, here are six places already making some of the data gleaned from their contact tracing efforts public, which illustrate how useful this information can be.

1. New Jersey: Nearly Half Of Cases Refuse To Provide Names Of Contacts

In its COVID data dashboard, New Jersey’s contact tracing tab focuses on contact tracing capacity and staff numbers, even breaking the staff down by county.

«The data I’m seeing here on the number of contact tracers and the effectiveness of contact tracing is really fabulous, says Watson. «It really helps you understand how many people — contacts in particular — are being reached and notified and the timing in which that is happening.

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The contact tracing tab on New Jersey’s COVID-19 Dashboard.

NJ.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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NJ.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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Louisiana’s contact tracing website includes a list of outbreak events that is updated weekly. The site defines an outbreak as «2 or more cases among unrelated individuals that have visited a site within a 14-day time period.

LDH.LA.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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LDH.LA.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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Maryland has a webpage that lays out «Contact Tracing Performance Measures.

MD.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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MD.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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D.C.’s «Reopening Tracker includes two contact tracing metrics, including the percentage of cases arising from quarantined contacts.

DC.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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DC.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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Delaware has a webpage titled «Contact Tracing Statistics that walks through the contact tracing process.

Delaware.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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Delaware.gov/Screenshot by NPR

The North Dakota Department of Health coronavirus dashboard includes a chart showing the «Source of Exposure.

ND.gov/Screenshot by NPR

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ND.gov/Screenshot by NPR

Now, the state appears to be using contact tracing data to identify sources of exposure for new cases.

«Their buckets are kind of broad, Watson says. «It’s interesting that community transmission is higher than close contact transmission, since close indoor contact is generally believed to be the main driver of COVID transmission. More specificity — like in Louisiana’s outbreak data — might help explain what these buckets mean in real life, she says.