Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health continues to lead efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Lancaster County through contact tracing and testing, a program LG Health established in May with support from Lancaster County government and federal CARES Act funding.
LG Health confirmed recently that it will continue testing and contact tracing through April 30, 2021.
Contact tracing involves reaching out to anyone who came into direct contact with an individual who tested positive with COVID-19, to provide isolation and symptom guidance.
"We've increased our capacity to address the surge in cases, and expect by January to reach approximately 230 cases and 600 contacts on average each day," said Alice Yoder, executive director of Community Health at LG Health.
To date, the contact tracing team has called 7,772 people who tested positive for COVID-19 and collected nearly 15,000 contacts.*
*As of Dec. 23, 2020.