Here's what you need to know about contact tracing at UNC this semester

With students back on campus, Campus Health and the Orange County Health Department are working together to trace COVID-19 cases among members of the Carolina community through contact tracing. 

Here's what you need to know about the system: 

Is the system anonymous? 

This contact tracing process will be anonymous and confidential for positive individuals and their close contacts. Those contacting the individuals have undergone HIPAA and FERPA training, and collected data is kept in a secure database to ensure confidentiality, Amy Sauls, director of pharmacy and professional services at Campus Health, said. 

Who counts as a close contact? 

Students who have been within 6 feet of an infected individual for 15 minutes cumulatively can expect a phone call from Campus Health or the Orange County Health Department identifying them as a close contact. Qualification as a close contact also includes exposure to an infected person beginning two days before the onset of symptoms or a positive test result. 

Exposed students living on-campus will be contacted by Campus Health through a phone call. Those living off-campus are called by the Orange County Health Department.

What comes next? 

Students will receive a daily digital assessment of their well-being throughout the quarantine period.

“The close contact will then be contacted via phone by a contact tracer, who will provide further details about the quarantine period and what quarantine is,” Margaret Campbell, Orange County contact tracing team lead, said in an email to The Daily Tar Heel. “The student will receive daily digital assessments until the end of quarantine, and the contact tracer will periodically connect with the student during the quarantine period and to confirm the end of the quarantine period.”

How long will I quarantine? 

On-campus students will be sent to quarantine for 14 days in the quarantine and isolation dorms, Sauls said. Off-campus students will be asked to quarantine in their place of residence for 14 days. Those without the proper resources off-campus will be given the assistance necessary to quarantine. 

How does it work? 

Sauls said the two organizations use an investigative process to identify exposed individuals. This involves a call with individuals immediately after testing positive, in order to identify close contacts. 

“It's walking through step by step, day by day, the person's activities and helping them to remember and identify those people who they may have come in close contact with,” Sauls said.

New phone who dis? 

Michelle Camarena, director of nursing and performance improvement at Campus Health, said it is important for students to answer the initial call for contact tracing from a Chapel Hill number. 

“It is really important that the students answer the phone, and they talk to us as openly and honestly as they can,” Camarena said. “The information that they share with us is confidential.”

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