On Friday, public health officials in Oklahoma announced that the state will start using text messages for contact tracing.<br />Gizmodo reports that this will allow alerts to be sent to people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 by patients that have tested positive. <br />In a press release, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said that the text method will require contacts to "Fill out their own contact tracing interview form, receive specific quarantine-related messaging, and acquire a letter of exclusion without ever interacting with a contact tracer.” <br />Oklahoma’s Governor, Kevin Stitt, became the first U.S. state leader to share that he'd tested positive for coronavirus on July 15.<br />While the text messaging is a new step, Gizmodo says that it highlights the fact that the U.S. is still months behind other wealthy countries when it comes to fighting Covid-19.
