The Connecticut Department of Health has extended its contact tracing program ContaCT to May 2022, after which the program will transition entirely to local health departments, a move originally planned for Aug 27, 2021.

The department’s move comes at a time when the state’s positivity rate is at 3.10%, and is expected to climb during the coming winter months. Connecticut has reported 372,069 positive cases since the start of the pandemic, with 380 hospitalizations currently. COVID-19 deaths rose to 8,355 as of Aug 30, 2021.

Today on Where We Live, we talk about State and town health departments using people and data to keep us safe from the delta and other variants. How well is it working?

GUESTS:

• Michael Luongo -Investigative reporter and former contact tracer, New York City
• Lea Zimany - Contact tracer, Connecticut Department of Public Health.
• Hemi Tewarson - Executive Director, the National Academy for State Health Policy.
• Emily DiSalvo - Reporter, CT News Junkie
• Kevin Elak: Acting Director, Middletown Department of Health

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