‘High volume of cases’ stalls some contact tracing in El Paso County

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The El Paso County Health Department says it may not be able to complete contact tracing for all COVID-19 cases due to the county's rapid increase in cases.

El Paso County is currently on the White House Coronavirus Task Force red zone list, according to documents obtained by ABC News.

"Our cases of COVID have skyrocketed to the point now where we're eclipsing 4, 5 sometimes 600 cases a day," El Paso County Deputy Medical Director Dr. Leon Kelly said.

Health officials say they are too overwhelmed and don't have enough staff to keep up with the surge and contact trace.

"What we're seeing is a massive number of cases and then way too many contacts for those people," Dr. Kelly explained. "There's really no public health department in the country that has the contact tracers and the staffing that can compensate for that sudden surge in cases. It's really not possible."

Those who test positive for coronavirus may receive a call for a phone interview or a text prompting them to fill out an online survey instead.

"The reality is this is one of the consequences of that. When you have large numbers of cases, your infrastructure, your ability to prevent it from spreading it diminishes," Dr. Kelly said.

State health officials are urging everyone to download and turn on the exposure notification app on their phones. Public health leaders say it may be the quickest way to get notified if you are at risk.

"There's no more tricks. There's nothing else that I'm going to do, that public health is going to do that's going to change the course at this point. It all comes down to those simple things. We just need everybody to go home, to be honest with you. We need everybody to reduce their life down to those essential services. And we don't need the government to tell us to do that. We know what's the right thing to do," Dr. Kelly said.

Health officials are asking individuals who test positive for COVID-19 should reach out to their close contacts and quarantine themselves.