As more and more businesses throughout the state resume operations after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, they face a continuing concern about the virus from customers, employees and vendors who come to their facilities. Many organizations have instituted temperature checks and inquire about symptoms, out-of-state travel, and other issues in an attempt to weed out individuals who might be ill and contagious. State and federal authorities have put forth a variety of guidelines explaining how companies can properly and fairly institute these procedures.

Other steps, most notably masks and social distancing, also can help tamp down transmission of the virus. But one of the most powerful tools available to fight COVID-19 is known as “contact tracing,” which has long been used to limit the spread of everything from tuberculosis and measles to HIV and Ebola.