CS 317432-A 06/11/2020

Contact Tracing – CDC’s Role and Approach

Overview

Overview

Contact tracing is an effective disease control strategy that involves investigating cases and their contacts and 

then interrupting disease transmission—typically by asking cases to isolate and contacts to quarantine at home 

voluntarily. Contact tracing is a key strategy to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.

Case investigation is the identification and investigation of patients with confirmed and probable diagnoses of 

COVID-19 (cases). Contact tracing, also referred to as contact investigation, is the identification, monitoring, and 

support of the individuals (contacts) who have been exposed to the patient and possibly infected themselves. This 

process prevents further transmission of disease by separating people who have (or may have) an infectious disease 

from people who do not.

Prompt identification, voluntary isolation or quarantine, and monitoring of a person diagnosed with COVID-19 

and their contacts can effectively break the chain of disease transmission and prevent further spread of the 

virus. Case investigation and contact tracing are core disease control measures that have been used by state 

and local health departments for decades to slow or stop the spread of infectious diseases.

Core Principles of Contact Tracing 

during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Contact tracing should be conducted for close contacts of 

confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients. 

Contact tracing steps include: 

1. Case investigation: Public health staff work with 

a patient to help them recall everyone with whom 

they have had close contact during the time when 

they may have been infectious. For COVID-19, a close 

contact is defined as any individual who was within 

6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes 

starting from 48 hours before the person began 

feeling sick until the time the patient is isolated. 

2. Contact tracing: Public health staff begin contact 

tracing by notifying exposed individuals (contacts) of 

their potential exposure as rapidly and sensitively as 

possible, not revealing the infected patient’s identity.

3. Contact support: Contacts are provided with 

education, information, and support to help them 

understand their risk, what they should do to separate 

themselves from others who are not exposed, and 

how to monitor themselves for illness. In addition, 

they are informed of the possibility that they could 

spread the infection to others even if they themselves 

do not feel ill. 

4. Self-quarantine: Contacts are encouraged to stay 

home and maintain social distance from others (at 

least 6 feet) until 14 days after their last exposure to 

the infected patient, in case they also become ill. 

Every effort should be made to interview the patient and 

contacts by telephone, text, or video conference instead 

of in person. Contact tracing is a labor-intensive process 

that requires a well-trained workforce of effective 

communicators who can approach individuals with 

compassion and build trust. 

cdc.gov/coronavirus
CDC’s Role in COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Communities must scale up and train a large case 

investigation and contact tracer workforce and work 

collaboratively across public and private agencies to 

stop the transmission of COVID-19. As the nation’s 

public health agency and the primary resource for State, 

Tribal, Local, and Territorial (STLT) health departments 

on managing disease outbreaks, CDC’s primary role 

in contact tracing is to provide guidance and support 

to help STLT health departments launch effective 

contact tracing programs. The ultimate goal is for STLT 

jurisdictions to have robust public health systems that 

include a fully developed contact tracing workforce. 

In support of this goal, CDC is providing STLTs with 

guidance, training, and technical assistance on 

contact tracing. 

CDC also provides COVID-19 assistance directly to 

STLT health departments through over 300 CDC field 

assignees embedded in health departments across the 

nation. Moreover, CDC links STLTs with other federal 

agencies, academia, and other organizations that offer 

contact tracing/case management staffing solutions. 

To support surge staffing needs in health departments 

and tribal communities, CDC has funded the CDC 

Foundation to hire local staff to augment STLT 

jurisdictions’ COVID response efforts, including contact 

tracing. The CDC Foundation will work with health 

departments and Area Indian Health Boards (AIHBs) to 

hire and place 665 public health professionals, including 

contact tracers, in health departments and AIHBs.

Important Considerations for 

Contact Tracing

There are several key considerations for developing STLT 

jurisdictional contact tracing plans: 

• Expanding staffing resources. Contact tracing in the 

United States will require that states, tribes, localities and 

territories recruit and hire adequate levels of well-trained 

case investigators and contact tracers.

• Training staff. Successful case investigation and contact 

tracing for COVID-19 depends on a robust and well-trained 

public health workforce. Contact tracing requires staff 

with adequate training, excellent and tactful interpersonal 

skills, cultural sensitivity, and language and interviewing 

skills that allow them to build and maintain trust with 

clients and contacts.

• Investigating cases and identifying contacts. Case 

investigators must be able to advise people with 

probable or confirmed COVID-19 infection to self-isolate 

immediately, if they are not doing so already. Case 

investigators also must be prepared to interview cases and 

ask them to identify people who may have been exposed 

(contacts). Investigators then need to provide support to 

help cases self-isolate and determine if they need 

social services.

• Tracing and monitoring contacts of infected people. 

Contact tracers must be able to notify contacts of their 

exposure, advise them to self-quarantine, and to selfmonitor for COVID-19 symptoms. They need to be able 

to determine what support services contacts need to 

effectively self-quarantine.

• Monitoring the effectiveness of contact tracing.

Public health officials should be prepared to monitor the 

completeness and timeliness of contact tracing activities, 

including the number of cases identified among contacts. 

• Using digital tools. Adoption and evaluation of digital 

case management or contact tracing tools may make 

the traditional contact tracing process faster and 

more efficient. 

CDC continues to engage with each state health 

department to review these key areas and address 

barriers that could prohibit them from effectively 

conducting contact tracing. 

Tools and Resources

As many states face the need to rapidly scale up their 

staff capacity, CDC is providing programmatic guidance, 

technical assistance, and resources to help them hire and 

train new and existing staff. CDC has developed a range 

of guidance documents and is facilitating access to a 

variety of case investigation and contact tracing training 

products and tools for a diverse and evolving public 

health workforce. These products and tools are available 

through the Get and Keep America Open website, which 

is continuously updated. A wealth of information is 

available, including the Interim Guidance on Developing 

a COVID-19 Case Investigation & Contact Tracing Plan, 

resources on how to train a workforce, and guidance 

on using digital tools for contact tracing. CDC also 

partners with national organizations and other partners 

to identify and share lessons learned and promising 

practices associated with surge staffing and 

continuous improvement in contact tracing and case 

investigation practices. 

2 cdc.gov/coronavirus