Massachusetts Coronavirus Contact Tracing Program Ramps Up

BOSTON (AP) — A contact tracing initiative launched by Massachusetts to help slow the spread of the coronavirus has already reached out to about 5,000 individuals, Gov. Charlie Baker said at a press conference Thursday.

The state has hired about 1,000 workers to make the contacts. The goal of the program is to call individuals who are confirmed to have COVID-19 and then reach out to individuals with whom they have had recent close contact.

At first public health officials were expecting that the list of contacts would average about 10. Instead, the average number of contacts is closer to two — a tribute to the effort by the state's residents to maintain social distancing, Baker said.

The calls, which also offer help in self-isolating, tend to be longer than initially anticipated.

"It is not a clinical conversation per se, it is a trust conversation. People are asking questions. People are looking for information," Baker said. "It is a much more free flowing and open dialogue than I think a lot of the people who are doing this were expecting."

Baker said calls from the contact tracing team will come with an 833 or 857 area code to show up as MACOVID Team on caller ID.

"If you receive a call from the collaborative, please take the call and provide the relevant information," he said.

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