Elsevier

Annals of Epidemiology

Volume 59, July 2021, Pages 50-55
Annals of Epidemiology

Original article
Assessment of contact tracing for COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness, Salt Lake County Health Department, March–May 2020

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.04.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

Contact tracing is intended to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but it is difficult to conduct among people who live in congregate settings, including people experiencing homelessness (PEH). This analysis compares person-based contact tracing among two populations in Salt Lake County, Utah, from March–May 2020.

Methods

All laboratory-confirmed positive cases among PEH (n = 169) and documented in Utah's surveillance system were included in this analysis. The general population comparison group (n = 163) were systematically selected from all laboratory-confirmed cases identified during the same period.

Results

Ninety-three PEH cases (55%) were interviewed compared to 163 (100%) cases among the general population (P < .0001). PEH were more likely to be lost to follow-up at end of isolation (14.2%) versus the general population (0%; P-value < .0001) and provided fewer contacts per case (0.3) than the general population (4.7) (P-value < .0001). Contacts of PEH were more often unreachable (13.0% vs. 7.1%; P-value < .0001).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that contact tracing among PEH should include a location-based approach, along with a person-based approach when resources allow, due to challenges in identifying, locating, and reaching cases among PEH and their contacts through person-based contact tracing efforts alone.

Keywords

Covid-19
People experiencing homelessness, Contact tracing
SARS-COV-2
Epidemiology
Public health
list of abbreviations and acronyms PEH = people experiencing homelessness
RT-PCR= reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction

Cited by (0)

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No outside financial report was received for this work and the authors claim no conflicts of interest.

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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