M E M O R A N D U M
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the Town Council
From: Council Member Robert “BJ” Duncan, Seat 1
Date: July 15, 2020
Re: Urging the Florida Department of Health and/or Miami-Dade County to develop or procure a Contact Tracing Smartphone application.
REQUEST
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A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF CUTLER BAY, FLORIDA, URGING THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND/OR MIAMI-DADE COUNTY TO DEVELOP OR PROCURE A CONTACT TRACING SMARTPHONE APPLICATION; PROVIDING FOR TRANSMITTAL; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
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BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
As a Council Member of the Town of Cutler Bay (the “Town”), I am proud to serve with my fellow Council Members who are empowered to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of the residents, employees, businesses, and visitors.
With the ongoing threat of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic still upon us, it is imperative that measures be taken to ensure people in close contact with someone who is infected with the disease are closely monitored and provided guidance on care and treatment to further prevent transmission of the disease. One of the most successful methods of counteracting the growing spread of the disease is through the use of contact tracing.
In public health, contact tracing is the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person and subsequent collection of further information about these contacts. Contact tracing is a tried and true public health measure that has been successfully used to contain communicable diseases, such as HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis. As in all public health responses, tools must be adapted to meet the challenges of each microbe. Contact tracing for COVID-19 must be executed on a significantly larger scale, adapting to unique challenges of the virus including asymptomatic spread. Countries including Germany, South Korea, and Singapore have all done this successfully.
On May 10, 2020, the World Health Organization issued an interim Guidance Report entitled Contact tracing in the context of COVID-19, which provides guidance on how to establish contact tracing capacity for the control of COVID-19 (Attachment “A”). When systematically applied, contact tracing will break the chains of transmission of an infectious disease and is thus an essential public health tool for controlling infectious disease outbreaks.
Considering the availability of personal, internet connected devices (such as smartphones) throughout society, as well as advancements in the development of contact tracing technologies by companies like Apple, Inc. and Google which protect and encrypt individual information, it would be beneficial to develop a smartphone based application to use in contact tracing.
These contact tracing applications can and should be developed or procured to protect personal and private information, while providing an additional line of defense against exposure and infection of COVID-19. This proposed application would operate in an opt-in basis and would not require an individual to participate if they do not want to.
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the Town Council adopt the attached Resolution urging the State of Florida and/or Miami-Dade County to develop or procure a smartphone application that can successfully determine and identify persons who may have come into contact with an infected person and collect further information about these contacts.