SISD nurses helping City of El Paso with contact tracing of virus

EL PASO, Texas -- The city of El Paso has been trying to slow the spread of Covid-19 since the pandemic started. One way to mitigate that is through contact tracing, but with hundreds of people to contact daily, they can't do it alone.

Socorro Independent School District nurses have been helping the city by doing the contact tracing for students and families within the district.

"These are our kids; these are our families. Its our job to mitigate the positives within our schools," said the nurse manager for the district, Rebecca Madrid.

Every day, students, faculty and staff fill out a wellness check form. If they chose one of the indicators -- either they're feeling sick or waiting for test results -- nurses are notified immediately.

Since September, when the contact tracing started, there have been 1,649 reports of a student or family member testing positive for Covid. There have been 373 positive cases for students working remotely and 127 positives for students on campus.

After a student tests positive, that information is given to the health department.