Resources
- Contact tracing flyers in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese
- How to get a COVID-19 test
- COVID-19 Houston resources
- Quarantine vs. Isolation
- What to do when you’re sick
- Caring for someone who is sick
- Households living in close quarters
- Ending home isolation
- Social distancing
- How to make a face covering/mask
- Coping with stress
- Helping children cope
Page last reviewed: September 23, 2022
COVID-19 Contact Tracing
Overview
Contact tracers work with people who have COVID-19 to let their close contacts know they may have been exposed to the disease.
Making a choice to work with contact tracers helps protect you, your family and your community by slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Contact tracers will never ask for your social security number, bank information or credit card number.
How Contact Tracing Works
- If you test positive for COVID-19, a contact tracer from your local health department will contact you by phone, email or text message.
- The contact tracer will check-in on your health, discuss with whom you’ve been in close contact and ask you to stay at home to self-isolate.
- The contact tracer then contacts the people with whom you had close contact to ask if they have symptoms and offer guidance about testing and quarantine.
- Unless you give permission, your name will not be given to those you identify as close contacts.
- It’s important to be forthcoming with the contact tracer as the information is vital to stopping the spread of disease.
Technology
- The Houston Health Department partnered with Qualtrics on secure web-based surveys to aid in the contact tracing process.
- If you tested positive for COVID-19, you may receive a health assessment survey that asks about your health and with whom you had close contact.
- You will then receive follow-up wellness check surveys.
- Meanwhile, the people you identified as close contact may receive a survey asking about their health and providing guidance about testing and quarantining.
- Links to surveys will come via email or text message and include a phone number you can call if you have questions or concerns.
Security and Safety
- As a follow up to an initial call, a contact tracer from the Houston Health Department (HHD) may call or text you from their HHD mobile phone, which could be from many different phone numbers.
- Automated text messages from Houston Health Department contact tracers will come from 35134, 73940 or 39242.
- Contact tracing automated email assessments from the Houston Health Department will come from houstonhealthdepartment@qualtrics-survey.com.
- If you receive a call, text or email regarding contact tracing and you are unsure if it’s legitimate, please call the Houston Health Department COVID-19 Call Center at 832-393-4220.
- Contact tracers will never ask for your social security number, bank information or credit card number.
- Information gathered during the contact tracing process is not used for any other purpose.