Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Hays County in mid-March, epidemiologist Eric Schneider has been conducting contact tracing — tracking where the individual had been and whom he or she might have had contact with during the prior 14 days.
Now as the number of cases has risen along with the availability of testing, the county is poised to join a program of the Department of State Health Services. As explained by Ian Harris, also an epidemiologist for the county, it will be a web-based program at no cost to the county that allows health department to communicate with each other.
“We will probably gain more cases in the long run but it is all about getting out in front of the virus,” Harris said. “People who are aware they have been exposed need to take precautions not to expose anyone else.”
