Update for May 27
/Message from Helen Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer
Did you know we have hundreds of new colleagues at the County, hired to play an essential role in our fight against COVID-19?
They’re members of our contact tracing team. We’ve brought hundreds of temporary employees on board in just a few weeks, and combined with some existing County employees, we’re nearly to our goal of 450 staff focused on this activity.
Contact tracing staff identify close contacts of positive cases, explain quarantine, monitor for symptoms and check in with them during their 14-day monitoring period. The tracing staff also connect them to testing and other service referrals as needed. This is critical to keeping COVID-19 from spreading in the community and is part of our T3 Strategy: test, trace and treat.
Contact tracing is not new to the County. Our epidemiology staff rely on these specialists to control other diseases, like measles. What’s new is the scale of this effort. More than a hundred investigators, who talk to positive cases. Two hundred contact tracers, who follow up with positive cases’ contacts. And a few dozen others in support roles.
On top of that, we’re partnering with San Diego State to provide another 100+ tracers to help with contact tracing in underserved areas. These will include people serving as community health workers, making sure our work is culturally sensitive.
It’s been impressive to watch this all ramp up so quickly, from starting the hiring, to training, to getting the tracers making their contacts. My thanks to everyone who has made this happen, and welcome to our new co-workers joining us in protecting the public’s health.