Olmsted County transitions COVID-19 case investigation/contact tracing (CICT) to Minnesota Department of Health

  • News
  • Nov 1, 2021

Olmsted County Public Health Services (OCPHS) is working with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to adjust COVID-19 response resources to focus on areas most urgent and relevant to the current stage of the pandemic. While Olmsted County had been one of the few counties in Minnesota doing COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing work, these efforts will now transition to MDH effective immediately.

MDH is shifting its work to detect and intervene on COVID-19 outbreaks and clusters faster and will dig deeper into variant and vaccine breakthrough cases. 

Given its robust investigation activities around COVID-19 cases, MDH has enough information to know where and how to focus public health intervention efforts to have the most impact on disease transmission. 

“This focus is consistent with how Olmsted County Public Health routinely works with infectious disease surveillance and mitigation strategies,” said Olmsted County Public Health Nurse Manager Leah Espinda-Brandt. “As MDH transitions its focus – which includes targeted surveillance of vulnerable populations – we at Olmsted County Public Health are transitioning our individual case work to targeted surveillance as well.”

MDH has further made some changes to how it conducts case investigations and contact tracing:

  • Not all individuals testing positive will get a call from MDH. 
  • MDH will focus on calling those under 18 years old, vaccine breakthrough cases, those with emerging variants of interest, and people who have had contact with individuals who are hospitalized or deceased.
  • While all individuals may not receive a call, MDH will send an online survey to every individual testing positive in order to gather some basic information. The survey will not be as extensive as a telephone interview. 
  • MDH will also send information on what to do if you have tested positive, including how to reach out to people with whom you may have had close contact.

From March 2020 through October 29, 2021, OCPHS’ case investigation team conducted 11,991 interviews with individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 as well as provided contact tracing with those who had exposure to COVID-19. However, as a result of MDH’s transition, OCPHS will no longer conduct routine case investigation/contact tracing for local COVID-19 cases. 

“We commend our hard-working county staff for their commitment to providing COVID-19 outreach, education, and resources for the last 18 months. Their work has helped lower the number of cases, hospitalizations, and fatalities within our community,” said Olmsted County Deputy Administrator of Health, Housing, and Human Services Travis Gransee.    

While OCPHS will no longer conduct contact tracing or case investigation, the department will continue working on COVID-19 response efforts including: 

  • Providing COVID-19 vaccines to the public.
  • Working with schools and businesses in the county to offer guidance and support.
  • Providing education and resources to the community
  • Continuing epidemiological surveillance and updating the website with local data weekly