Impact of a University-Led COVID-19 Case Investigation and Contact Tracing Program

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic devastated societies and economies worldwide. Given the major disruptions to higher education, reflection on university responses to the COVID-19 pandemic may provide insights for future outbreaks.

Here, we describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 on the Emory University campus during the 2020-2021 academic year and provide an evaluation of the performance of a university-led program with the purpose of describing the effectiveness of efforts to augment the public health authority's case investigation and contact tracing efforts during a public health emergency.

Evaluation of a case investigation and contact tracing program regarding operations, timeliness, and performance.

We analyzed quality metrics to determine the proportion of cases and contacts interviewed and the time to completion of each step from case diagnosis to testing of contacts.

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 1267 COVID-19 cases among Emory students, faculty, and staff were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction, with 1132 reported close contacts. Among cases, the median test turnaround time was 1 day (interquartile range: 1, 2). Among both cases and close contacts, 98% were successfully interviewed. The team called a majority of cases on the same day as their test result was reported to the program (87%; n = 1052). Almost all (98%; n = 1247) cases completed isolation or were advised to isolate during the review period. Close to half (46%; n = 513) of contacts interviewed began quarantine before their interview. Among close contacts interviewed, 13% (n = 145) subsequently converted to an index case.

The impact and performance of Emory's program may provide useful and actionable data for future university-led infectious disease outbreak response programs. The program structure, performance metrics, and information collected via interviews provide practical implications and an organized structure to guide other programs during future outbreaks.