Evaluating completion rates of COVID-19 contact tracing surveys in New York City.

Importance: Contact tracing is the process of identifying people who have recently been in contact with someone diagnosed with an infectious disease. During an outbreak, data collected from contact tracing can inform interventions to reduce the spread of infectious diseases. Understanding factors associated with completion rates of contact tracing surveys can help design improved interview protocols for ongoing and future programs.

Integrating Contact Tracers Into Point-of-Care Testing Workflow to Accelerate the Tracing of People With Exposure to COVID-19, August-December 2020, New York City.

Objectives: We assessed the timeliness of contact tracing following rapid-positive COVID-19 test result at point-of-care testing (POCT) sites in New York City (NYC).

Design: Interviewed case-patients to elicit exposed contacts and conducted COVID-19 exposure notifications.

Settings: Twenty-two COVID-19 POCT sites in NYC, the 2 NYC international airports, and 1 ferry terminal.

COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing in New York City, June 1, 2020, to October 31, 2021.

Importance: Contact tracing is a core strategy for preventing the spread of many infectious diseases of public health concern. Better understanding of the outcomes of contact tracing for COVID-19 as well as the operational opportunities and challenges in establishing a program for a jurisdiction as large as New York City (NYC) is important for the evaluation of this strategy.

Objective: To describe the establishment, scaling, and maintenance of Trace, NYC's contact tracing program, and share data on outcomes during its first 17 months.

Outcomes of a Community Engagement and Information Gathering Program to Support Telephone-Based COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Descriptive Analysis.

Background: Contact tracing is an important public health tool for curbing the spread of infectious diseases. Effective and efficient contact tracing involves the rapid identification of individuals with infection and their exposed contacts and ensuring their isolation or quarantine, respectively. Manual contact tracing via telephone call and digital proximity app technology have been key strategies in mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

Community-Based Workforce for COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Prevention Activities in New York City, July-December 2020.

Objectives: High rates of hospitalization and death disproportionately affected Black, Latino, and Asian residents of New York City at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. To suppress COVID-19 transmission, New York City implemented a workforce of community engagement specialists (CESs) to conduct home-based contact tracing when telephone numbers were lacking or telephone-based efforts were unsuccessful and to disseminate COVID-19 information and sanitary supplies.

Materials And Methods: We describe the recruitment, training, and deployment of a multilingual CES workforce with diverse sociodemographic backgrounds during July-December 2020 in New York City.

Community-Informed Mobile COVID-19 Testing Model to Addressing Health Inequities.

Context: The New York City (NYC) Test & Trace Corps (Test & Trace), under New York City Health + Hospitals (NYC H+H), set out to provide universal access to COVID-19 testing. Test & Trace partnered with numerous organizations to direct mobile COVID-19 testing from concept through implementation to reduce COVID-19-related health inequities.

Program: Test & Trace employs a community-informed mobile COVID-19 testing model to deliver testing to the hardest-hit, underserved communities.

A Phone Call Away: New York's Hotline And Public Health In The Rapidly Changing COVID-19 Pandemic.

In early March 2020 an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in New York City exerted sudden and extreme pressures on emergency medical services and quickly changed public health policy and clinical guidance. Recognizing this, New York City Health + Hospitals established a clinician-staffed COVID-19 hotline for all New Yorkers. The hotline underwent three phases as the health crisis evolved.

Staffing Up For The Surge: Expanding The New York City Public Hospital Workforce During The COVID-19 Pandemic.

Confronted with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, New York City Health + Hospitals, the city's public health care system, rapidly expanded capacity across its eleven acute care hospitals and three new field hospitals. To meet the unprecedented demand for patient care, NYC Health + Hospitals redeployed staff to the areas of greatest need and redesigned recruiting, onboarding, and training processes. The hospital system engaged private staffing agencies, partnered with the Department of Defense, and recruited volunteers throughout the country.