Media & Events
Sara Alert™ in the News
Don’t decline contact tracing calls, state says
Hot Springs Sentinel
The website notes if you haven’t spoken to a contact tracer on the phone to enroll in the automated SARA Alert program for reporting symptoms, beware of text messages asking you to click on a link. A tracer will not send you any links to click before speaking with you on the phone.
Berrien County Board OKs 9 new health department posts to aid in contact tracing
Herald Palladium
Commissioners further approved the health department using the free Sara Alert software and program to help keep track of the contact tracing more efficiently. Britten said it was developed by the Mitre Corp. and the Association of Public Health Laboratories and has been recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Streets busy, cases low
Mount Desert Islander
The CDC granted the hospital the public health jurisdiction to use the Sara Alert contact tracing system to track symptoms of those who have come into contact with a positive case here, even if the positive case is a visitor.
As Contact Tracing Ramps Up In The DC Region, What Have We Learned So Far?
WAMU 88.5
Vogt says contact tracers enroll people in Sara Alert, a software system created by Mitre and in place in Virginia since late May. The software sends emails, texts or phone calls to patients to monitor their vital statistics. If people are not comfortable using Sara Alert, Vogt says contact tracers will arrange to call them daily to monitor symptoms. Monitoring lasts for 14 days from the last date of exposure, Vogt says.
CHCC: CDC health advisory on NMI is incorrect
Marianas Variety
In the CNMI, newly arrived travelers are enrolled in the Sara Alert System and undergo two Covid-19 tests — one upon arrival at the Saipan airport and the second on the fifth day after their arrival. Travelers must undergo quarantine until the result of their fifth day test comes back negative.
“If we stop this, we are putting ourselves at risk for more cases and that is why it is critical that we maintain this model or one that is better,” Muna said.
Clay County health officials see success with automated system to track COVID cases
KMBC Kansas City
The public health agency has started using the Sara Alert system to bring automation to disease investigation, symptom tracking and contact tracing for COVID-19.
“It’s a great system,” said Danielle Roethler, a community development specialist with the Health Department. “It was designed for public health for this purpose.”
The department started using the Sara Alert system three weeks ago. It joins both the Unified Government Public Health Department and Cass County Health Department in the Kansas City metro area using Sara Alert. The free, open-source tool for public health departments is designed by MITRE, a not-for-profit federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) based in both Massachusetts and Virginia.
Characteristics and Outcomes of Contacts of COVID-19 Patients Monitored Using an Automated Symptom Monitoring Tool — Maine, May–June 2020
CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Maine found that using automated symptom monitoring as a part of the state’s contact tracing program was well received, with the majority of monitored contacts (96.4%) agreeing to automated symptom monitoring. Automated symptom monitoring promptly identified COVID-19 diagnoses among monitored contacts.
Read full CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report article.
Contact Tracing Aided by Automated Monitoring
Infection Control Daily
Maine health officials did not have the resources to conduct contract tracing in the traditional manner, and Maine’s relatively sparse, and spread out population also presented obstacles. The technological answer to these problems is called Sara Alert, an automated, web-based symptom monitoring tool. Maine began enrolling contact patients in Sara Alert on May 14. “Maine found that using automated symptom monitoring as a part of the state’s contact tracing program was well received, with the majority of monitored contacts (96.4%) agreeing to automated symptom monitoring,” the study states.
Maine CDC works with MDI Hospital to assist in contact tracing for COVID-19 positive tourists
WABI
MDI Hospital will start using Maine CDC’s Sara Alert system to enroll close contacts of out-of-state confirmed cases.
MDI Hospital to begin contact tracing
The Ellsworth American
MDI Hospital will use the web-based Sara Alert tool to begin contacting those “close contacts” (anyone who has been within 6 feet of the person for 15 minutes or more) of these out-of-state cases, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Nirav Shah announced Tuesday.
