FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. — The daily number of cases has started to slow, so Forsyth County Health Director Joshua Swift said they've been able to ramp down on contact tracers.
"When this first started and we saw a huge increase in our number of cases, we had to ramp up our contact tracing," said Swift, "The number of people that were doing that, at one point in time, we had between the health department, other Forsyth County government departments and staff from the state, we had over 100 people doing contact tracing."
Swift said staff within the health department and other offices in the county's government have been trained on contact tracing, and although they may have returned to their previous role, they can come back to be a contact tracer if needed at any point in time.
"We are prepared to ramp up the number of contact tracers if our case is increased," he said.
Swift said although they're seeing fewer cases, the virus is still spreading.
"We are continuing to see spread among family members or among individuals when they go to gatherings so that’s why we're trying to tell people to continue to spread that message of the 3 W’s," said Swift.
Swift said it's still important to wear a mask, wash your hands, and keep at least 6 feet from one another.
"We still have to be diligent because we are seeing cases where it’s a family group or where a group gets together at a gathering like a cookout or somewhat small event but sometimes we let our guard down in those situations and we’re still seeing that spread," he said.
Swift said March 12 marked the county's first two coronavirus cases.
"I know it’s hard because we’re five months into this. It was March 12 we had our first two cases in Forsyth County, just five months, it seems like it’s been a whole lot longer than that," he said.