Overwhelmed Grant County health officials cannot keep up contact tracing
Grant County Health District Administrator Theresa Adkinson, right, meets with other health district staff and contact tracers during an April meeting, shortly after the pandemic began. A little over seven months later, the health district is no longer able to keep up with contact tracing amid a surge in cases.
Overwhelmed by a surge of coronavirus cases, the Grant County Health District cannot perform contact tracing and asks people infected with the coronavirus to self-isolate and contact possible infectees themselves.
“We have surpassed our ability to do contact tracing,” said Theresa Adkinson, administrator for the Grant County Health District. “The state is not able to provide us any additional support.”
The health district will still contact local residents who test positive for the coronavirus, but only to ask them to tell anyone they have contacted that they should self-isolate.
Officials in neighboring Adams County said in an interview Tuesday that they are keeping up with contact tracing inside the county.
Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinma@columbiabasinherald.com.