Action News Jax investigates Florida’s contact tracing protocol

FLORIDA — When a person tests positive for COVID-19 in Florida, it’s reported to the Department of Health. From there, the department says an “extensive epidemiological investigation” is conducted to identify who this patient came in contact with and potentially exposed to the virus. For many years, health officials have use this method, contact tracing, to control the spread of a virus.

However, some Floridians say they’ve never been called.

“I had chills, my body was aching, I had a temperature of 103,” said Shevrin Jones, the Florida House Representative for the 101st District in Broward County.

Jones said he was diagnosed with COVID-19 last week. After his doctor called him, he received another call from the Florida Department of Health.

“She just started asking questions on whether or not I knew who I was around,” Jones said. “I said I was around a lot of people the past couple of days. Then she asked me if I rode in the car with anyone and I shared with her I have. Then her phone disconnected and I haven’t heard from them since.”

He believes the state is not doing appropriate contact tracing to control the spread of the virus.

“The State of Florida has put forward a contract with a company called MAXIMUS to do contact tracing. But if that’s the extent in which these individuals are doing contact tracing I’m extremely concerned,” Jones said.

The Florida Department of Health told Action News Jax it employs approximately 500 full-time epidemiologists. DOH hired 359 additional epidemiologists as temporary staff.

More than 1,600 individuals, including students, epidemiologists and other staff from across the department, are currently involved in contact tracing every positive case of COVID-19 in Florida.

The Florida Department of Health said they have also engaged with MAXIMUS, a company with previous experience in supporting governmental agencies, to hire an additional 400 contact tracers and 200 disease investigators.

Action News Jax requested the number of cases that have been tracked using this method so far.

The department said it is continuously assessing the operational need to remain prepared to respond to any potential increase in cases.

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