Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Hays County in mid-March, epidemiologist Eric Schneider has been conducting contact tracing — tracking where the individual had been and whom he or she might have had contact with during the prior 14 days.

Now as the number of cases has risen along with the availability of testing, the county is poised to join a program of the Department of State Health Services. As explained by Ian Harris, also an epidemiologist for the county, it will be a...