The Summers County Health Department explained “close contact”:
Someone who was within six feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from two days before illness onset — or, for asymptomatic patients, two days prior to test specimen collection — until the time the patient is isolated.
Individual exposures are added together over a 24-hour period, e.g., three 5-minute exposures for a total of 15 minutes. Data are limited, making it difficult to precisely define close contact; however, 15 cumulative minutes of exposure at a distance of six feet or less can be used as an operational definition for contact investigation.
Factors to consider when defining close contact include proximity (closer distance likely increases exposure risk), the duration of exposure (longer exposure time likely increases exposure risk), whether the infected individual has symptoms (the period around onset of symptoms is associated with the highest levels of viral shedding), if the infected person was likely to generate respiratory aerosols (e.g., was coughing, singing, shouting), and other environmental factors (crowding, adequacy of ventilation, whether exposure was indoors or outdoors).
Because the general public has not received training on proper selection and use of respiratory PPE, such as an N95, the determination of close contact should generally be made irrespective of whether the contact was wearing respiratory PPE. At this time, differential determination of close contact for those using fabric face coverings is not recommended.
