A Retrospective Analysis of Jordan's National COVID-19 Call Center: Operations, Effectiveness, and Lessons Learned

Contact tracing has been a cornerstone of non-pharmaceutical interventions to control the COVID-19 epidemic, with highly mixed effectiveness internationally. In Jordan, the Ministry of Health (MOH) collaborated with the Jordan Nurses and Midwives Council and the USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project to set up a call center for contact tracing of COVID-19.

This study described the operation and assessed the effectiveness of Jordan's COVID-19 call center activities in reaching COVID-19 cases and their contacts.

A retrospective observational design was conducted using data from all calls made by the COVID-19 call center cases between November 2020 and April 2022. Data were collected from initial and follow-up calls to PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases and their contacts. Data on socio-demographics, symptoms, and contact tracing activities were recorded. The study focused on key outcomes, including call success rates, the number of cases and contacts reached, and the role of different detection modes in identifying cases.

During the study period, the call center attempted to contact 1,027,911 COVID-19 cases, successfully reaching 802,525 cases (78.1%). Follow-up calls were made to 1,126,334 cases, with a success rate of 74%. The call center appeared particularly valuable during the initial period of the pandemic until it was overwhelmed by the significantly more transmissible Omicron variant of the virus. Two weaknesses were identified: gaps in reaching non-Jordanian citizen cases and difficulty in keeping up with case volume during the Omicron wave of February-March 2022, when reported cases peaked at over 20,000 per day. One-third of all reached cases said that they had been referred for testing through contact tracing.

Contact tracing activities led by the MOH were instrumental in identifying new cases, optimizing resource allocation, improving surveillance and data systems, targeting vulnerable population, and supporting mitigation strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan.