In order to get better cooperation from people who test positive for the coronavirus, and in order to save time for their overwhelmed case investigators, the state Department of Health this week introduced an online form that can take the place of a phone conversation.

The department has only managed to complete a low percentage of case investigations — 9%, for example, for the week ending

Dec. 12 — a success rate that reflects frequent unwillingness of people to answer investigators’ calls and a workload that has forced investigators to pursue only high risk cases, officials said.

Investigators will still call those who test positive, but for people between 19 and 64, instead of initiating a 30- to 60-minute conversation, they’ll ask for an email address, so they can send a link to a “Connect & Protect” form, which asks where the subject has been during his infectious period and who were his close contacts — along with demographic and risk information, department officials said Monday and Tuesday in news conferences and news releases.

Although a phone call is still required on the department’s end, people in the targeted age group in counties without a local health department can provide information at their own convenience, after a brief conversation — or even just in answer to a voicemail message, officials said.

“Folks might be more apt to put the information in” on the more impersonal form than they would say it aloud during a personal conversation, Lindsey Mauldin, special assistant on contact tracing, suggested during Tuesday’s news conference.

That may be especially true if the infected person finds the information they’re being asked to disclose is “stigmatizing,” or if they’re hesitating to “share based on being a contact,” Mauldin said.

The new setup will be “more efficient for them and staff,” Mauldin said.

“They can do it on their own time,” Mauldin said. “They don’t need to return a phone call.”

The form takes a few minutes to fill out, Mauldin said.

For the busy investigators, time is “precious,” Mauldin said. There are currently 230 of them, according to the department.

Investigators try to call within 24 hours of a positive test notification, according to the department.

For the week ending Dec. 12, they met that goal in 9,200 cases — 13% of the 71,000 that the pandemic generated, according to the department’s weekly news release.

They started an additional 4% of cases within 48 hours.

There has already been some initial success with the new online form, as the department reached 52% of 284 people for whom attempts were made on the first day of the form being available, Mauldin indicated.

“Launching this tool allows public health professionals to connect with more Pennsylvanians in record time to learn where people went and who they were in close contact with while infectious in order to further protect loved ones and neighbors across the commonwealth,” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said in a news release.

People who are in the age group slated to receive a link for the Connect & Protect form but who don’t have access to the internet will be placed in the phone queue, as will people who can’t easily understand English — although the department is working on alternative language forms, Mauldin said.

After investigations are complete, contact tracers take over, getting in touch with the close contacts revealed by the investigations, to urge those contacts to quarantine and to help them monitor their situations, officials said.

Contact tracing, which takes less time, has been more statistically successful.

Since the start of the department’s Contact Tracing Management System in early October, tracers operating in areas where county or municipal departments aren’t responsible for the work have successfully connected with 47,800 individuals, 76% of the contacts identified by investigators, according to a department news release.

Vaccinations of frontline health care workers with the new Pfizer vaccine have begun, and as of Monday, 109 hospitals in Pennsylvania have received 127,700 doses — 26,500 of which have been administered, according to a department news release.

But vaccination doesn’t offer absolute protection, noted department Director of Testing and Contact Tracing Michael Huff during the news conference Tuesday. Someone who’s been vaccinated, then comes into contact with an individual who’s positive should “absolutely” get tested, Huff said.

“You want to be sure you’re not part of the 5%” of people that studies showed do not obtain immunity with the new vaccine, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.