They’ve got phones, clipboards and virus cases. What do they need? Software

People and surfers on the beach on April 22, 2020 in Huntington Beach, California as social distancing and beach closures continue due to the coronavirus (Covid-19). As new cases decline and states attempt to reopen, it will be up to public health departments to identify people infected with the virus, find out whether they’ve exposed others, and, if so, to quarantine and monitor those contacts. — AFP

As US states and cities begin to think about reopening their economies, the public-health workers who will be responsible for keeping the coronavirus under control are facing an unprecedented challenge: how to track and isolate thousands of people exposed to a disease that spreads with remarkable efficiency.

For years, state and local health authorities have relied on Excel spreadsheets, pencil and paper, emails and phone calls to deal with outbreaks of measles, sexually transmitted diseases and other communicable infections. But with more than 800,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US, that’s not enough. A new software tool called Sara Alert, developed by a federally funded nonprofit, aims to solve that arduous data-management problem.