Contact Tracing Resources
This hub highlights the most useful resources from governmental public health, academia, think tanks, and nonprofits to support LHDs in designing, establishing, scaling up, and strengthening contact tracing programs.
This page includes resources that characterize the context and rationale for contact tracing in response to the pandemic, including white papers, position pieces, and expert opinion.
| Resource | Provided By | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Building COVID-19 Contact Tracing Capacity Whitepaper | NACCHO | This NACCHO position statement calls for and justifies large scale investments in contact tracing in health departments. |
| HIV Lessons for COVID-19 Contact Tracing | O'Neill Institute | The resource highlights the importance of COVID-19 contact tracing, details lessons learned from the HIV response, and includes contact tracing resources from leading public health and HIV organizations. |
| A Guide to Community-Based Workforce Principles for Contact Tracing | Health Begins | This tool details and recommends the adoption of community-based workforce principles to ensure an effective and equitable approach to COVID-19 contract tracing. |
| Health Equity and Social Solidarity in the Time of Pandemic Webinar | Response and Recovery Webinar Series | This webinar series highlights the challenges communities are facing as they respond to COVID-19 and its impacts, and facilitates learning opportunities among community leaders, researchers, and policymakers across the nation. |
| Letter to Congress Urging an Expansion of Workforce for Contact Tracing | NACCHO | NACCHO's April 16, 2020 letter to congress, urging and justifying expansion of contact tracing workforce. |
| Joint Request for Funding for Contact Tracing Workforce | NACCHO, APHL, ASTHO, CSTE, NCSD | National partners April 30, 2020 emergency supplemental funding request for contact tracing workforce. |
| National Covid-19 Testing and Tracing Action Plan | Rockefeller Foundation | This resource proposes and details a unified national plan for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. |
This page includes resources to inform program planning for contact tracing, including tools to help LHDs assess their workforce needs, develop contact tracing strategies and plans, adapt their efforts as the pandemic evolves, and evaluate their impact to ensure an effective response.
| Resource | Provided By | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Legal authorities for isolation and quarantine | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This webpage details federal, state, local, and tribal legal authorities for isolation and quarantine. |
| State quarantine and isolation statutes | National Conference of State Legislatures | This page identifies and summarizes specific statutes regarding legal authority for quarantine and isolation for each state. |
| Pandemic Resilience: Getting it Done (scaling up Testing, Tracing, and Supported Isolation Programs) | Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University | This document offers guidance to help state and local governments develop Testing, Tracing, and Supported Isolation (TTSI) programs in support of testing for purposed of disease control and suppression. |
| Tracing Workforce Estimator | GWU Milken Institute of Public Health | This tool can be used by state and local jurisdictions to calculate the number of contact tracers needed to clear all cases within one week, based on 14-day COVID-19 case counts. |
| Contact Tracing Staffing Calculator | Resolve to Save Lives | The excel calculator helps estimate staff resources needed for scaling up contact tracing. |
| Administrative Preparedness Workforce Strategies | NACCHO | This report is designed to improve the understanding of administrative factors affecting adequate staffing during an emergency response and the workforce strategies used by health departments to mitigate them. |
| Interim Guidance on Developing a COVID-19 Contact Tracing Plan | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This guidance provides detailed considerations, process and tools to support LHD development of a contact tracing plan. |
| COVID-19 Contact Tracing Playbook | Resolve to Save Lives | This playbook aims to provide clear and actionable technical guidance and tools for U.S. health departments to rapidly set up and implement contact tracing to support COVID-19 containment. |
| Contact Tracing for COVID-19: Assessing Needs, Using a Tailored Approach | Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy | This report posits key questions for LHDs to answer as they plan a tailored contact tracing approach to their local epidemic. |
| Health Sharing and Privacy | Network for Public Health Law | This webpage compiles resources, guidance, and information regarding health data sharing and privacy. |
| Testing, Tracing, Supported Isolation Technical Advice Handbook | Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University | This handbook defined TTSI programs and reviews steps by which to operationalize them. |
| Suppressing COVID-19 through TTSI | Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University | This is a companion document to the TTSI Technical Advice Handbook, providing a general briefing on the approach. |
| Key Metrics for COVID Suppression | Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University | This document recommends core metrics for the evaluation of the COVID-19 response and key performance indicators to evaluate particular tools, including contact tracing. |
| COVID Risk Levels Dashboard | Harvard Global Health Institute | This map-based tool allows users to assess and compare COVID-19 risk levels for each county in the United States. |
| CDC COVID-19 Key Resources | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This page provides states, tribes, localities, and territories with key resources on COVID-19 infection prevention and control, laboratory capacity, community mitigation, surveillance and data analytics, contact tracing and staffing. |
This page includes resources for training and management of the contract tracing workforce, including sample training plans; principles and best practices; free, virtual, high-quality trainings; and strategies for relieving stress and preventing burnout.
| Resource | Provided By | Description |
|---|---|---|
| COVID-19 Contact Tracing | Johns Hopkins University | This free course teaches students about the science of COVID-19, the role of contact tracing as a public health intervention, and best practices for conducting contact tracing. |
| Making Contact: Training for COVID-19 Contact Tracers | Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD) | This free, on-demand training is designed to prepare individuals with little or no public health background to work as entry-level contact tracers. |
| Contact Tracing Training Plan | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This guide provides an overview of contact tracing strategies for COVID-19 and includes a sample training plan and training topics that may be useful for state and local health departments as they develop contact tracing plans. |
| Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Training | Public Health Foundation | This webpage aggregates trainings and webinars and includes over 100 on COVID-19. |
| Training Package for COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracers | Jhpiego, Baltimore City Health Department | This resource is designed to support COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracers. The 7-day course includes facilitator guidance, a slide deck, and supplemental material, including an "e-Binder" with sample protocols, job aids and participant hand-outs. |
| Training Package for Supervisors and Managers of Covid-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing Programs | Jhpiego, Baltimore City Health Department | This resource is designed to support supervisors and managers of COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing programs. This 2-day course includes facilitator guidance, a slide deck, and supplemental material, including job aids and participant hand-outs. |
| Cuyahoga County Board of Health Contact Tracing training videos | Cuyahoga County Board of Health | This webpage includes training videos on COVID-19 contact tracing and related topics and includes materials for case and contact interviews and isolation and quarantine orders. |
| COVID-19: Testing, Tracing, and Tracking | Region V Public Health Training Center | This on-demand webinar provides an overview of the epidemiology of COVID-19, the basics of contact tracing and testing, and important considerations for case investigation interviewing practices. |
| Every Contact Counts: Contact Tracing for Public Health Professionals | Northwest Center for Public Health Practice | This contact tracing course provides an interactive learning experience through interview skill-building videos, quizzes, and an exercise to practice key decision-making during a contact interview. |
| COVID-19 Related Training Courses | Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) | This webpage includes a curated list of COVID-19 contact tracing trainings for state, local, tribal, and territorial employees and volunteers. |
| COVID-19 Contact Tracing Course | Purdue University | This contact tracing course covers key topics to help public health agencies track and limit the spread of COVID-19 and is aligned with World Health Organization content and CDC training objectives. |
| Modules to Relieve Stress For Healthcare Workers | HHS - Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) | This brief video and exercise can help healthcare practitioners understand stress reactions and learn how taking just a few minutes to check in with oneself and de-stress can help. |
| COVID-19 Workforce Virtual Toolkit | HHS - Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) | This webpage provides a curated set of resources and tools for decision-makers managing healthcare workforce challenges in response to the COVID-19 emergency. |
| General Contact Tracing Phone Calls | Maryland Department of Health and Human Services | This is a generalized version of a contact tracing training created by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for COVID-19. |
| Telephone Interview Best Practices | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This training introduces partner services providers (i.e., DIS) to the basic principles and best practices for conducting telephone interviews, including professionalism, confidentiality, and cultural competency, as well as how to prepare for and conduct a telephone interview. |
| Resources for COVID-19 Contact Tracing | MAVEN | This webpage compiles resources for COVID-19 training and education. |
| Training Courses for Protecting Health Information | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Provides a catologue of training courses for a variety of COVID related topics, including for contact tracing. |
| Free Customized COVID-19 Contact Tracing Training | Public Health Foundation | Health departments can now receive a customized package of online training for their COVID-19 contact tracers. Learn more about this free service from the Public Health Foundation at www.phf.org/contacttracing, or fill out this quick and easy form to indicate the trainings you’d like to include for your COVID-19 contact tracing workforce. |
This page includes tools for contact tracers and program managers, including checklists, workflows, and digital technologies, as well as resources characterizing different approaches and technologies for contact tracing.
| Resource | Provided By | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Key Information to Collect During a Case Interview | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This resource details key information to collect during case interviews. |
| Model Workflow for Case Investigation (based on HIV/STI Partner Services) | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This resource provides an overview of the steps involved in partner services for HIV and STIs, which can inform COVID-19 contact tracing efforts. |
| COVID-19 Contact Tracing Checklists | Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) | This tool includes checklists for health departments to use as they expand their contact tracing programs, including checklists for progam development and infrastructure. |
| Digital Contact Tracing Tools for COVID-19 Infographic | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This document characterizes types of digital contact tracing tools, including tools for case management and exposure notification, and the benefits they can provide for each aspect of contact tracing. |
| Steps for Public Health to Plan for the Use of the Apple | Google Exposure Notification Framework | Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) | This reported was created out of the need to develop and provide guidance to public health about the use of Apple and Google's smartphone-based exposure notification framework in support of contact tracing. |
| State Approaches to Contact Tracing during the COVID-19 Pandemic | National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) | This interactive map highlights states’ contact tracing program models, workforce, funding sources, and support technology and demonstrates how each state is expanding their contact tracing capacity. |
| Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 | Occupational Safety and Health Administration | This guidance is intended to help employers and workers identify risk levels in workplace settings and determine appropriate control measures to implement. |
| Digital Tools to Support Contact Tracing: Tool Assessment Report | Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) | This report is designed to educate public health officials on the various types of digital contact tracing tools in the marketplace and on proximity notification technology. |
| Self-Isolation and Self-Quarantine Home Assessment Checklist | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This tool is designed to aid case investigators and contact tracers in assessing patients' and contacts' ability to safely isolate or quarantine at home, and the need for additional social support. |
| COVID-19 Case Investigation Workflow | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This infographic characterizes a model case investigation workflow. |
| COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workflow | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This infographic characterizes a model contact tracing workflow. |
| COVIDTracer | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | COVIDTracer is a spreadsheet-based tool that allows state- and local-level public health officials and policy makers to compare three different contact tracing/monitoring strategies. |
| The Best Contact Tracing Tech Resources | #TestandTrace | Lists COVID-19 related technological applications designed to facilitate activities such as contact tracing. |
| Epi Info™ | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Epi Info™ is a public domain suite of interoperable software tools that can be used for developing small to mid-sized disease surveillance systems and provide for analysis, visualization and reporting. |
| HealthSpace: Mass Contact Tracing and Surveillance tool | HealthSpace | A platform designed to automate and simplify contact tracing. |
| Issue Guide: COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing | Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) | This guide aims to help health officials think through critical functionalities needed for case investigations and contact tracing, technological options, and issues of implementation in adopting these technologies. |
| Considerations for Case Investigation and Contact Tracing in K-12 Schools and Institutions of Higher Educations (IHEs) | CDC | This guidance is meant to provide information on identifying close contacts, testing for COVID-19, vaccination, mask use, isolation, and quarantine for K-12 school and IHE settings. |
| COVID-19 Source Investigation | CDC | This guidance walks you through the method of Source Investigation, where tracers look back over the 14 days prior to symptom onset or specimen collection date (for asymptomatic cases) and identifying interactions that may have been the source of the infection for the person with COVID-19 |
| Overview of Testing for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) | CDC | This is a regularly updated page that shares the key information about COVID-19 testing |
| Case Investigation and Contact Tracing in Non-healthcare Workplaces: Information for Employers | CDC | This is a resource for employers and provides guidance on contact tracing, specially in a non-healthcare setting. |
| Tell Your Contacts | tellyourcontacts.org | This site provides someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 to inform those they have been in close contact with via text message or email |
| Sara Alert | Sara Alert | Sara Alert™ is a standards-based, open source tool that automates the process of public health monitoring and reporting of individuals exposed to or infected with COVID-19 or any infectious disease. It provides resources for both those who are sick/have been exposed, and public health professionals |
This page includes resources to support LHDs in scaling up their contact tracing workforce, including links to potential paid and volunteer staffing solutions, and strategies for leveraging existing personnel, funding, and community resources.
| Resource | Provided By | Description |
|---|---|---|
| National Student Response Network | National Student Response Network | This webpage can be used by health departments to identify health professions students to support COVID-19 response efforts. |
| Toolkit For State And Local Agencies: Vulnerable Populations | HHS - Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) | Provides a list of social and support resources available to LHDs in DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, and WV. |
| Strengthen Your Team + Tech with a virtual MIT Social Impact Intern | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | MIT's PKG Center for Public Service provides virtual social impact interns. |
| Contrace | Contrace Public Health Corps | Provides urgent contact tracing workforce placement. |
| Flexible, remote workforce of community health workers in support of isolated COVID-19 patients | InquisitHealth | InquisitHealth provides a flexible, remote workforce of community health workers who can support isolated COVID-19 patients. |
| Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) | Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) | A national network of local groups of volunteers engaging local communities to strengthen public health. |
| International Refugee Committee | International Refugee Committee | Provide support of referrals of linguistically and culturally diverse individuals to fill staffing needs. |
| Scaling Up Staffing Roles in Case Investigation and Contact Tracing | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Defines roles and responsibilities of key public health staff to support COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing. |
| National Approach for Contact Tracing | Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) | Describes a three-tiered approach to building the national contact investigation workforce. |
| Contact Tracing for COVID-19 Medicaid Use | BerryDunn | A blog post describing how to leverage Medicaid to support and fund contact tracing efforts. |
| Meeting the Needs of At-Risk Individuals: Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic | HHS - Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) | Site listing federal resources that may be available to support COVID response. |
| Financial Resources for Health Departments | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Site listing funding awarded for COVID-19. |
| Financial Resources for Health Departments | Generation USA | Job site with specific section for national contact tracer recruitment. |
| Interim Guidance on Developing a COVID-19 Case Investigation & Contact Tracing Plan: Overview | CDC | This is a general overview document to assist in the planning od COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing |
This page includes resources to support contact tracing communications, including communication guidelines and best practices and multilingual health education and contact tracing materials.
| Resource | Provided By | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Stay Home. Save Lives. COVID-19 Public Health Toolkit | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation | This toolkit includes free infographics for public health agencies to download, distribute, and use on communications channels. |
| Interim COVID-19 Contact Tracing Communications Toolkit for Health Departments | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This toolkit includes talking points, Q&As, sample health marketing messages, PSA scripts, and social media posts to assist health departments in sharing information about contact tracing with the public. |
| COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing among Refugee, Immigrant, and Migrant (RIM) Populations: Important Considerations for Health Departments | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This resource highlights important topics that may affect contact tracing among refugee, immigrant, and migrant populations, including concerns regarding confidentiality, language barriers, and opportunities for community engagement. |
| Investigación de casos de COVID-19 y rastreo de contactos entre las poblaciones de refugiados, inmigrantes y migrantes: consideraciones importantes para los departamentos de salud | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | Este recurso destaca consideraciones importantes sobre la investigación de casos de COVID-19 y el rastreo de contactos entre las poblaciones de refugiados, inmigrantes y migrantes. Estas consideraciones incluyen la confidencialidad, las barreras idiomáticas y oportunidades de participación de la comunidad. |
| National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants | University of Minnesota | The National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants, and Migrants (NRC-RIM) develops tools and resources for state and local health departments to support COVID-19 prevention and mitigation among refugee, immigrant, and migrant communities. Resources include: a growing library of translated materials; community engagement, communications, and contact tracing toolkits; resources to support vaccine planning and roll-out and promote vaccine knowledge and confidence; culturally and linguistically-relevant videos; and training on stress and resilience for case investigators and contact tracers. |
| Effective COVID-19 Crisis Communication | Centers for Infectious Disease Research and Policy | This report highlights principles of crisis communication and includes tips for effective communications about COVID-19. |
| Protecting Yourself from Coronavirus | Scientific Animations Without Borders | This video series provides information about protecting yourself from COVID-19 in 14 languages. |
| ASL COVID guidelines | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This video series provides COVID-19 information and education in American Sign Language on topics such as how does COVID-19 spread, what you need to know about handwashing, and using cloth face coverings. |
| Communication Partnerships for Public Health Emergencies | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | This webpage includes a webinar and related materials on how to share life-saving information during an emergency with people who are hardest to reach through community partnerships. |
| COVID-19 Educational Materials - 26+ Languages | Washington State Department of Health | This page includes multilingual health education and contact tracing materials. |
| Coronavirus (COVID-19) Multilingual Resources | Orange County North Carolina | This page includes multilingual health education and contact tracing materials. |
| COVID-19 Community and Patient Health Education Toolkit | Greater New York Hospital Association | This page includes multilingual health education and contact tracing materials. |
| Coronavirus Disease 2019 Information for for Healthcare Providers | County of Los Angeles Public Health | This page includes multilingual health education and contact tracing materials. |
| Resources and Support | Virginia Department of Health | This page includes multilingual health education and contact tracing materials. |
| Answers to Tough Questions about Public Health | Public Health Communications Collaborative (PHCC) | This webpage includes communications resources for public health officials and provides suggested messaging in response to tough questions about the COVID-19 response, including contact tracing. |
| COVID-19 contact Tracing Communications Graphics | CDC | This provides several different infographics health departments can use to encourage compliance with contract tracing |
| How To talk To Your Close Contacts What To Do If You Have COVID-19 | CDC | This infographics walks through how to talk to those you've been in contact with if you've tested positive for COVID-19 |
| Contact Tracing: A Community Engagement Checklist for | CDC | This is a checklist to assist LHDs in effectively engaging with their communities around contact tracing. It includes Reviewing key principles of community engagement, determining the purpose of working with community partners, relationship building, community involvement in identifying barriers and potential solutions, and developing an effective communications strategy |
| Contact Tracing: Do your part to keep your family, friends, and community safe | CDC | This infographic shares the steps that will happen once someone has tested positive for COVID-19. |
| Answer the Call | CDC | This is a YouTube video for the public that shares information about what will happen if you have tested positive for COVID-19. It includes what information a contact tracer will ask on a call and how to avoid a potential scam |
| What to Expect | CDC | This page shares the things a person can expect after they have tested positive for COVID-19, if they are waiting on a COVID-19 test result, or if they were around someone who tested positive for COVID-19 |
<< GO BACK TO CONTACT TRACING LANDING PAGE
Contact Tracing Tools for Covid-19 Response was developed in collaboration with our partners, ZS.