Contact tracing key step in keeping southern Oregon counties open

Dr. Jim Shames breaks down what contact tracing entails and what you need to know as you head out.

Is in phase two of reopening.

For those of you just joining us- here's a quick breakdown of what that entails.

People are allowed to gather in larges sizes.

Businesses are allowed to have more people inside.

It depends on how big the building is.

Restaurants and bars can stay open later.

More types of businesses are allowed to open- like movie theaters and swimming pools.

Masks are still required only for employees at a lot of these places.

Though everyone is encouraged to wear masks as often as possible when out in public.

We have a break down of restrictions now in place for every sector on our website, kdrv.com.

In order for our counties to stay in phase two restrictions, people have to stay healthy jackson county public health medical director, dr. jim shames joins us now.

Thanks again for staying with his doctor.

I'm glad to be here.

Thank you.

So tell us a little bit about what exactly does contract tracing mean from your standpoint and from a businesses standpoint?

Sure.

So as we reopen, we, we, uh, undeniably are going to have more contact, uh, between people.

More opportunities for the disease to spread.

And we expect that there will be some increasing cases.

Um, our strategy at this point is to try and identify those cases as quickly as possible.

Get the folks that are sick, isolated, figure out all the people that have had close contact with and get them to quarantine that is to stay away from other people for two weeks.

Uh, if they get sick, then there'll become cases themselves and we'll identify them.

See who their contacts were.

And the principle is to just keep putting out these little fires one after another, after another.

And at the same time, make sure we don't get a big outbreak in a congregate living situation or a place where lots of people come together.

So whose responsibility is it to get you the information you need to find out who that person been in contact with?

Is that on a business?

Is that on me as an individual?

How does that affect.

It's on you as an individual, we're asking you to participate in this, this public act of, of health care exploration.

So you got sick, um, confidentially.

We want to know all the people you've had contact with from just before you got sick up to the moment that we discover you're sick.

And we don't identify to the individuals where we got the information, we would tell them you've, you know, you've been named as a contact with somebody.

Who has covid and we're asking you to quarantine yourself, or if you have symptoms to get tested, how detailed does that list have to be?

Is it somebody i walk next to and target or someone i who cut my hair?

I mean, what level of interaction would i need to be included on that contact list?

Um, if you've had close face to face contact unprotected within six feet of an individual for 15 minutes or more, that's considered a contact.

Um, and there are extenuating circumstances.

There is singing and yelling.

You know, there, there are situations where the, the risk might be greater, but in general, that's defined as contact.

And it's usually people who are either working right next to, um, or somebody who lives in the same family as someone who has this disease.

I know there've been cases in other areas where say, for example, a hairstylist was ill got, had contact with her customers.

Would that business then be responsible providing information to you about who came into that shop for how long and, and how that, how would that end up at work?

Yeah.

Well, there are different rules and regulations for different kinds of work.

I mean, going into a supermarket and back, you don't have to sign in and sign out, but when you're about to cut somebody's hair and have we're having a massager or some kind of close contact for a while, um, it seems wise to be able to track who's come in and who hasn't.

So in case there has been a contact, then, uh, then we would find that we haven't had to test this out.

So i don't exactly know how it would play out in real life, but that would be the reason for it.

But ultimately it's public health responsibility to do the contact tracing and to do it in a professional manner.

Um,