First District Health Unit in Minot is no longer conducting contact tracing for its seven-county region. It’s been handed over to the state.

Lisa Clute says First District did contact tracing while the state was in the process of hiring more people to be tracers.

She says now, the health unit’s resources will focus on helping schools navigate the pandemic, offering COVID testing, immunizations and things like community education.

If there is a positive case within a school, the state will contact First District who then contacts the school.

“If you were tested positive, you had no kids in school or whatever, had no affiliation with the school, the state would contact you and begin normal contact tracing. With the schools, we work with them very closely so we can get a rapid response,” Clute said.

Clute also says even if you’re wearing a mask, positive cases must identify anyone they were in close contact with.

Gov. Doug Burgum also suggests the Care-19 apps to make contact tracing easier.