Don’t hang up: Unknown phone numbers might be COVID-19 contact tracers, officials say
An army of contact tracers is at work across the country — and they really need people to answer their phones.
State and local health officials from North Carolina to Washington state are telling residents to stop associating unknown phone numbers with telemarketers and pick up. It could be a contact tracer hired by a health department to help track down people exposed to the coronavirus, officials say.
“Please remember contact tracing is integral to protecting the health of our state and by answering the phone you are helping keep your family, friends and neighbors safe,” said Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm, according to WLUK.
Contact tracing has been used for decades to help track and control disease outbreaks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It involves tracking down people potentially exposed to COVID-19 after one of their contacts tests positive and informing them of the risk, at which point they might be advised to seek care or self-isolate.
The CDC has said contact tracing will be “a key strategy” to preventing the spread of COVID-19.
But not if people ignore their calls.
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen has said her staff is working out how to communicate what people should expect when they get that phone call from an unknown number, CBS17 reported.
“How do we make sure we can actually reach people?” she asked during news conference, according to CBS.
For some areas particularly hard hit by the pandemic, contact tracing has become increasingly important as the cases drop to a more manageable level.
In Washington state, NPR reported contact tracing efforts all but stopped “as the cases ballooned” in March.
Now health officials are redoubling their efforts. The state expected to employ at least 1,500 contact tracers by the second week of May, according to the radio station. But it’s a huge undertaking.
“One problem... is simply reaching people who might not be inclined to answer a call from an unknown number,” NPR reported.
In Alabama, Dr. Wes Willeford — medical director of the Jefferson County Department of Health — said legitimate contact tracers will only ask for a person’s name, date of birth and address, WBRC reported.
Residents will never be asked for their Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other personal information that could be used to steal their identity, according to the TV station.
“If someone claiming to be from the health department tries (to get more personal information), then hang up,” WBRC reported.
Residents in one Florida county did exactly that when contact tracers started calling them early in the pandemic, according to The Ledger in Lakeland. Dozens of those calls go out each day, the newspaper reported, but a lot of people “were reluctant to answer sensitive health questions” in March.
“Suspicious, they insisted on calling the county’s hotline only to be reconnected,” The Ledger reported.
Health officials in Michigan have issued a similar warning about unknown numbers and what information its contact tracers are after.
According to Joe Coyle, manager of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Communicable Disease Division, “privacy is a top concern,” WWMT reported.
No one should hand out their Social Security number or bank information, he said, according to the TV station.
“We’re not going to be asking for a lot of detailed information. It’s name, maybe county of residence and age to confirm that we are talking to the right person,” Coyle said.
Skeptical residents are free to call the local health department to verify a contact tracer has been in touch, WWMT reported.
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Don’t hang up: Unknown phone numbers might be COVID-19 contact tracers, officials say."
