Trends in COVID-19 requests to Connecticut 2-1-1

In Connecticut, requests to 2-1-1 for COVID-19 information are declining as the pandemic wears on while requests for COVID-19 diagnostic testing are rising rapidly. Moreover, most requests for COVID information are received by phone, while an overwhelming majority of requests for diagnostic testing are coming from online searches of 2-1-1’s resource database. Requests for COVID-19 antibody tests have been tracked during the last week, and are also primarily web-based searches. We examined 183,629 COVID-19-related requests received by Connecticut 2-1-1 between March 3 and June 30, 2020. Requests were classified by type (COVID information, diagnostic testing, antibody testing) and modality (phone, web). Requests for COVID information peaked on March 31 with 661 daily requests, with over 95% of requests coming by phone. These requests then declined steadily before rising slightly in late June. The first requests related to COVID-19 diagnostic testing were received by Connecticut 2-1-1 on March 6th by phone and April 28th by web searches, and there have been four days already with over 10,000 requests. Connecticut 2-1-1 has received 516 requests for COVID-19 antibody tests in the first 6 days of tracking such requests. Findings reveal an increasing trend in CT towards web requests, and likely reflect the State of Connecticut linking directly to the 2-1-1 website for testing locations. Mouse over each line to see the number of requests each day for different COVID-19 needs and 2-1-1 modalities.

Contributors: Rachel Garg, Balaji Golla, Irum Javed, Matthew Kreuter