Kansas health department to end contact tracing amid COVID-19 surge. What it means

The state of Kansas will soon end its coronavirus contact tracing program, calling the step a move toward managing the coronavirus as an endemic.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Acting Secretary Janet Stanek told lawmakers on Tuesday that the decision to wind down contact tracing was driven both by the volume of cases and waning cooperation. The operation in which health department staff notify people who were exposed to the virus will end Feb. 1.

“We are not finding that the public is as willing to share information and so efforts related to contact tracing end up being a little futile at this point,” Stanek told a hearing of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.

In its announcement, KDHE indicated contact tracing may be suspended at K-12 schools that were participating in a program where students are tested to remain in class. Contact tracing has become very difficult for schools, Stanek said, as cases are diagnosed by the hundreds.

Some districts have even canceled classes this week because of the large numbers of students and staff either sick or in quarantine. Stanek told lawmakers that contact tracing efforts would now fall to the schools themselves, a decision she said would be re-evaluated in 30 days.

“We would like to have the schools, if they can continue contact tracing, to continue doing that but if not, to discontinue that,” Stanek said.

Beginning in February, those who test positive for the virus will be solely responsible for informing their close contacts that they had a potential exposure.

If the exposure happens in what’s considered a “high-risk setting,” like schools, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, long-term care facilities, day cares or churches, either the KDHE or the local health department will notify the institution of the potential risk, according to KDHE. From there, the institution will be responsible for telling any close contacts with the infected person about the exposure.

“As we enter the third year of this pandemic, public health has to begin to adjust the level of response to help alleviate the strain on the Public Health system,” Stanek said in a news release Tuesday. “The pandemic is far from over, but this step is a move toward managing COVID-19 as an endemic disease. The responsibility of protecting yourself and others belongs to all of us.”

Those who have been working as contact tracers will be reassigned to contact investigations, according to the release.