

Behind the scenes with a coronavirus tracer: detective, nurse, confidant

She's trying to keep the mood light because she needs to find out where he's been and who he's been around for the past seven days. She gently peppers him with questions, including where he and his wife stopped to buy flowers on a visit to a cemetery. She encourages him to go through his bank statement to see if it reminds him of any store visits he made.
Midway through the conversation, a possible break: His wife lets slip that they had family over for Mother's Day, including a grandchild who couldn't stop slobbering.
"Was there like a shared food platter or something like that?" Bray asks. "There was, okay, yep... sharing food or sharing drinks, even just being on the same table, it can spread that way.'"
Contact tracing, Turkey
Dr Melek Nur Aslan, left, the local health director for Fatih, a large district in the historic peninsula of Istanbul briefs a team of contact tracers with Turkey's Health Ministry's coronavirus contact tracing team, clad in white protective gear, masks and face shields. (AP)
The goal: To create a road map of everywhere infected people have been and who they've been around.
While other countries have devised national approaches, a patchwork of efforts has emerged in the US where states are left to create their own program.
Some estimate as many as 300,000 contact tracers would be needed in the US to adequately curtail the spread. While some states like Utah have reported having enough contact tracers, others are hundreds or even thousands of people short.
Contact tracing, USA
Salt Lake County Health Department public health nurse Lee Cherie Booth points to a board showing a hypothetical case that serves as a training tool to teach new contact tracers how to track all the people they need to reach out to after a person tests positive for the new coronavirus. (AP)

A delicate operation

The contact tracers often find themselves in a tangled web of half-truths and facts that don't match up. Language and cultural barriers arise that require interpreters and taxing conversations that leave the investigators wondering if the person understands what they're trying to do.
Health investigator Maria DiCaro found out days into a case that a father was sleeping in his car because he and his wife were separating. The man had stopped returning DiCaro's calls, and that key information came from his child.
"I get people that lie all time," DiCaro said. "I try to get as much information from the beginning but it's just not always the case. And time is one of those things you can't take back when you are trying to prevent and you know do these contact tracing investigations."
"People sometimes think contact tracing is black and white but there is a lot of gray that goes into it," said Bray, who often thinks about her parents and 97-year-old grandmother as she works to help stop the spread of the virus. "Our worst fear is that we push too hard and we lose someone. It's not just their health on the line, it's the people around them."
No matter the tension, Bray and DiCaro give frequent reminders of why it all matters: "Thank you for what you're doing. You're helping the community," DiCaro says during one call.

Breaking frightening news

"It's normal to talk to like your doctor, but you don't ever expect the health department to call you and be like, 'You were exposed to a serious disease,'" said Anissa Archuleta.
Contact tracing, Berlin
Public health officer Patrick Larscheid on May 11, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Each Berlin district has set up its own team for infection tracking, so that when a positive case is detected, people who might have come in contact with the person can be alerted. Health experts see tracking as a crucial cornerstone for heading off potential spikes in infection rates as Germany eases its lockdown measures in a bid to raise economic activity. (Getty)
What they didn't know: the father of the birthday boy had the coronavirus, and unknowingly exposed more than a dozen people at the gathering.
After that first call, DiCaro checked in every day for two weeks. The fear slowly faded after their tests came back negative and they began building a rapport with DiCaro. She asked about their symptoms and how they were feeling each day and learned about how Archuleta's mother lost her voice to fibromyalgia. Archuleta would pass along messages her mother whispered in her ear.
"Ah thanks," she said as she grabbed a Kleenex to wipe her eyes.
"When you do this like 10-12 hours a day... It's nice to get those positive reactions from people that are very grateful who do see the purpose of what we are doing," said DiCaro. "It's nice to be appreciated."
– Reported with Associated Press

Send your photos, videos and stories to 9News
