Lewis County has partnered with Mathematica, a policy and data company, to ramp up its contact tracing efforts as virus cases continue to be confirmed. | Pixabay
Lewis County has partnered with Mathematica, a policy and data company, to ramp up its contact tracing efforts as virus cases continue to be confirmed. | Pixabay
Mathematica, a data and policy company contracted with the State Department of Health, will help Lewis County expand its contact tracing efforts.
The partnership was announced by Lewis County Public Health and Social Services. The Mathematica team will start work immediately at no cost to the county.
“We won’t have to be using any of our funds that we have already received for that contact tracing work, which is really big, because they were not an inexpensive company to contract with, so that’s pretty exciting,” Public Health Director J.P. Anderson told The Daily Chronicle.
The county began to consider expanding their contact tracing efforts earlier this month as COVID case numbers continue to rise and more students return to school in person. Previously, there were only a few county employees conducting contact tracing.
Contact tracing is performed by reaching out to individuals who have tested positive for the virus and asking them who they have had close contact with. Close contact means within six feet for more than 15 minutes while the patient was infected. Then contact tracers contact the close contacts, tell them of their potential exposure and encourage them to get tested if they develop symptoms.
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