Inslee Lays Out Contact Tracing Initiative

Governor Jay Inslee spoke at a press conference Tuesday, detailing the implementation of the state's COVID Contact and Tracing System initiative.

Inslee stated that the initiative signifies Washington's transition from early social distancing measures to reopening, testing, and tracing.

Inslee said, "This initiative will be a state-wide extension of what local public health districts have historically done for other diseases, such as tuberculosis, hepatitis and the like. But it will be at a much grander scale, as it needs to be, given the extent of the COVID-19 virus."

The initiative is comprised of five steps to contain the virus. The first step is quarantining individuals upon their first symptom, followed by wider testing with quick results, representing Step 2. Step 3 is to quickly isolate any coronavirus-positive individuals, while Step 4 will focus on identifying and notifying any people that individual may have come into contact with. Finally, those that have been in contact with a positive individual will need to quarantine even before test results come back.

Inslee added that by the end of this week, the state's new Contact Tracing Team will have 1,371 members trained.

That team will include professional interviewers, who Inslee said will respect confidentiality and privacy. Members of the Contact Tracing Team will not ask for immigration status, marital status, financial information, or Social Security numbers.