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Contact Tracing—What You Need to Know

One of the key steps in limiting the spread of COVID-19 is called Contact Tracing. Find out what this means and how it will work at Meredith.

What is Contact Tracing?
Contact tracing is the process used to identify anyone who may have come into contact with a COVID-19 positive person. Anyone with a COVID-19 positive test will be asked where they have been and with whom they have been in contact while they may have been contagious. Contact tracing is confidential, and both FERPA and HIPAA regulations restrict what information can be shared about any case. For more details, visit the NC Department of Health and Human Services website.

Contract tracing generally involves the following:

  • Interviewing people with COVID-19 to identify everyone they had close contact with during the time they may have been infectious
  • Notifying contacts of their potential exposure
  • Referring contacts for testing
  • Monitoring contacts for signs and symptoms of COVID-19
  • Connecting contacts with services they might need during the self-quarantine period

To prevent the further spread of disease, people who had contact with someone with COVID-19 are encouraged to stay home and maintain social distance (at least 6 feet) from others in their home until 14 days after their last exposure to a person with COVID-19. Contacts should monitor themselves by checking their temperature twice daily and watching for symptoms of COVID-19.

How will Contact Tracing work at Meredith?

Meredith College has collaborated with the Wake County Health Department to develop appropriate protocols for case management and contact tracing for cases that may occur on campus.

All contacts received by the College that indicate an exposure to COVID-19 will be immediately traced by trained contact tracers from our campus; separate contact tracing teams have been established for students and employees. This process will be managed by Human Resources (for employees) and the Student Health Center (for students).

Anyone at Meredith (employees and students) who is identified as having had primary contact (within six feet for more than 10 minutes) with someone who has tested positive with COVID-19 will be contacted by Meredith’s contact tracing team. External community contacts (off-campus) will be managed by the Wake County Health Department.

How can Meredith community members help?

Most importantly, anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 should alert Meredith College so that contact tracing can begin. Employees must remain at home and contact Human Resources and students who are diagnosed with COVID-19 should contact the Student Health Center. For contact tracing to work successfully, it is important for any campus community member called by the contact tracing team to answer their phones and respond to all questions.

For more information, visit meredith.edu/staying-strong.

Melyssa Allen

News Director
316 Johnson Hall
(919) 760-8087
Fax: (919) 760-8330

allenme@meredith.edu