Contact tracing is critical to slowing the spread of COVID-19, but it's tough for the Navajo Nation, which has the third-worst outbreak in the U.S. With persistent health inequities and poor infrastructure, it's hard to get to those who might be infected.
Diana Hu is a pediatrician at Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation and a member of the Navajo epidemiology response team.Aurelia Yazzie/Courtesy Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation
"They're really doing amazing work at their public health institutions with their governors and their mayors," Birx says."They are in full contact tracing." Damon says the tribe has about 80 contact tracers. And they are working hard to do their job. But some realities of life on the reservation make such tracing difficult. Not everybody has a phone, and it takes hours to drive to one home. Damon is trying to train more contact tracers to cover the vast geography and lack of telecommunication infrastructure.
"We are United States citizens but we're not treated like that," says Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez."You can hear the frustration, the tone of my voice. We once again have been forgotten by our own government."
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