NC to hire 250 to trace contacts of those exposed to coronavirus

Over the next month, the state of North Carolina will double the number of people trained and employed to trace contacts of those exposed to coronavirus, Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mandy Cohen said Monday.

Tracing is essentially following in the footsteps of anyone who tests positive for the virus to see where they went, who they interacted with and for how long. The state will need 500 trained tracers by the end of May, Cohen said.

"Special consideration will be given to those who are unemployed, have community engagement experience and live in the communities that they will serve," Cohen said.

Most current tracing is done through phone interviews, but researchers from Apple, Google and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on Bluetooth phone apps to detect close proximity to known positive cases.

Each method has its pitfalls. Phone interviews rely on a person's memory about where he went or who he interacted with. The use of smartphone apps would be voluntary, and some people may resist because of privacy concerns.