COVID-19 Contact Tracing in Two Counties — North Carolina, June–July 2020

Contact tracing is a strategy implemented to minimize the spread of communicable diseases (1,2).Prompt contact tracing, testing, and self-quarantine can reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (3,4).Community engagement is important to encourage participation in and cooperation with SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing (5).Substantial investments have been made to scale up contact tracing for COVID-19 in the United States.During June 1-July 12, 2020, the incidence of COVID-19 cases in North Carolina increased 183%, from seven to 19 per 100,000 persons per day* (6).To assess local COVID-19 contact tracing implementation, data from two counties in North Carolina were analyzed during a period of high incidence.Health department staff members investigated 5,514 (77%) persons with COVID-19 in Mecklenburg County and 584 (99%) in Randolph Counties.No contacts were reported for 48% of cases in Mecklenburg and for 35% in Randolph.Among contacts provided, 25% in Mecklenburg and 48% in Randolph could not be reached by telephone and were classified as nonresponsive after at least one attempt on 3 consecutive days of failed attempts.The median interval from specimen collection from the index patient to notification of identified contacts was 6 days in both counties.Despite aggressive efforts by health department staff members to perform case investigations and contact tracing, many persons with COVID-19 did not report contacts, and many contacts were not reached.These findings indicate that improved timeliness of contact tracing, community engagement, and increased use of community-wide mitigation are needed to interrupt SARS-CoV-2 transmission.Routinely collected case investigation and contact tracing data from June 1-30, 2020, for Mecklenburg, and from June 15-July 12, 2020, for Randolph counties were analyzed.Case investigations were conducted for persons with laboratoryconfirmed COVID-19, including the elicitation of persons potentially exposed to the index patient (3).Contact tracing was performed for persons identified as close contacts and included inquiry about COVID-19-compatible symptoms and instructions to self-quarantine for 14 days since last exposure (3).Health