Oklahoma Testing Site Now Using Contact Tracing Per Positive Case

The state is now using medical students to help trace the contacts of people who test positive for corona virus, to know who else might have been exposed.

Those contacts are encouraged to isolate themselves and monitor symptoms.

For state and local health departments, each new positive case prompts a new investigation. In Tulsa, epidemiologist Abhishek Shakya is one of the people who calls positive patients to ask who was around them in the last 14 days.

Curtis Barone, Oklahoma's first COVID-19 case, got one of those calls.

"They asked, day by day, hour by hour, wanted to find out where I was, who I potentially came into contact with, so they could respond accordingly," said Barone.

In Tulsa, the Health Department opened a new sample collection site at the Fairgrounds Expo Square, with capacity to handle 50 people an hour. Appointments are required. Each positive case they identify will prompt a new investigation to track down people who were exposed.

Tulsa Health has 25 people trained in contact tracing. They're handling more than 450 cases; starting with telling someone, they're positive.

Jerome Loughridge, Oklahoma's Secretary of Health said contract tracing was an important tool is identifying when people can go back to work.

Governor Kevin Stitt said, "enhanced testing and tracing allows us to better respond to people who get sick and quickly identify who needs to be isolated so we can control the spread of the virus."

Recovering COVID-19 patient Skip Wrightsman was asked who was within 6 feet of him for more than just a few minutes.

"The list really wasn't as long as I thought it would be," said Wrightsman.

Tulsa Health said they find 35 close contacts in a typical case.

Thursday cars lined up at the sample collection site by Walmart at 81st and Lewis, but there were fewer people at the OSU Health Sciences Center, the OU Tulsa campus, and at the Fairgrounds site run by the Health Department.

Each location requires appointments. The Health Department reports test results are now coming back within 48 hours of the sample collection.