(WENY)-- In a major change, New York state says that contact tracing will no longer be required. The Steuben County Health Department has already started this process.

Governor Kathy Hochul made the announcement today with Acting Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett. The main reasoning behind this change? The high number of COVID cases that continue to overwhelm local health departments.

Darlene Smith is the Public Health Director for Steuben County. She says that the County enacted the new policy on Monday, January 10th. With the state now taking over contact tracing from local health departments, she says that people who test positive will not be contacted, unless they fall underneath one of four priority groups.

"Case interviews and contact tracing will really only occur for four priority groups that the state DOH has identified." Smith explained. ". Those four groups are the elderly, which is defined as age 70 and older, the youngest population, and congruent living situations, as well as schools, which will include daycares."

With the Steuben County Health Department not needed to make calls, Smith says that it will allow her staff to focus more on outreach, but it does come with a downside.

"My my staff will be freed up to really concentrate more and spend more of our energy on vaccination clinics, testing, education about all of that, we will be able to do more of that," Smith says. "The disadvantage to the whole thing is, without through case investigations and contact tracing among everyone, the potential for this to have a negative impact on our hospitals is worrisome."

Smith says that while those who test positive for COVID won't receive a call, they will get a text to their phone to fill out a questionnaire. Once they get confirmation they tested positive, Smith says they should reach out to anyone they have had close contact with, and then the affected parties can download the isolation and quarantine forms from the state and county websites.