North Carolina on fast track to hire 250 contact tracers to slow coronavirus spread
Contact tracing for the coronavirus will be a major step in being able to reopen North Carolina’s economy. It also will require at least a doubling of the workforce and some fast-track hiring.
To reach the goal of 500 contact tracers — the state now has 250 — the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services has created the Carolina Community Tracing Collaborative, which is a partnership with Community Care of North Carolina and the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers. They’ll work in conjunction with Partners in Health, a global health nonprofit with experience in contact tracing that set up the tracing model being used in Massachusetts.
The collaborative will coordinate with contact tracers available through local health departments, the DHHS said.
“Extensive contact tracing is a key strategy for North Carolina to stay ahead of the curve,” DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said in a statement. “Our local health departments are North Carolina’s experts doing this essential detective work and slowing the spread of COVID-19 in our communities. This collaborative will be a critical addition to our state’s capability to do widespread contact tracing and ease restrictions.”
Community Care of North Carolina has for more than 20 years worked in population health management and the NC AHEC program recruits and trains health care workers through a network of 10 regional AHEC offices.
Wake has 40 people per shift
Wake County had 40 people per shift performing contact tracing and monitoring at the start of the local outbreak. In a memo to local city leaders, the county outlined its efforts to increase the number of contact tracers to between 150 and 200. About half of those would be trained by May 8 with the rest trained no later than May 15. The county didn’t respond to a follow-up email asking whether those tracers would be redeployed county employees or part of the state’s efforts.
In Harnett County, public health workers are performing contact tracing, according to Ashley Deans, Harnett County Community Relations director.
Wake County shifted its contact tracing efforts to focus on health care workers, first responders and nursing homes as the cases grew. Now it’s ramping up efforts to double its testing as the county and state prepare to reopen.
Durham uses environmental health specialists, school health nurses and communicable disease nurses to conduct contact tracing.
“We treated every case as the highest priority, so that allowed us to go back 48 hours into retracing the steps of that particular person who tested positive, and as a result we have gained success in reducing community spread,” said Rodney Jenkins, Durham County Health Department director.
According to Harvard Medical School, the latest research suggests that people carrying the coronavirus are most likely to be contagious in the 48 hours before symptoms develop.
As of Monday evening, 67% percent of Durham’s 565 cases were a result of close contact.
New tracers will have state contracts
Paul Mahoney, vice president for communications for Community Care of North Carolina, said funding for the added state contact tracers would come from a contract with the state and DHHS, and that more than 250 new contact tracers could be needed and hired.
“What we’re expecting is that when testing becomes more prevalent it’s going to really boost up the amount of contact tracing work,” he said. “We’re trying to get ready for that bump by getting people hired and ready to go and trained. That amount (250) could go up if the demand is higher. It will be a matter of funding.”
Contact tracing is needed to notify people who have had close contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients and advise them about their exposure and the precautions they need to take. DHHS calls contact tracing a core disease control measure and notes it has been used for decades by local and state health departments in battling other diseases.
DHHS said recruitment of the additional contact tracers began immediately after the start of the pandemic and that the 250 additional workers could be hired by the end of May; people who are interested in working as a tracer an apply through the collaborative’s webpage.
Mahoney said the page has had 18,000 hits and 1,500 people had applied as of Tuesday. Those hired will not be state employees but a contracted labor force, he said; they will be deployed to the state’s counties on a need basis determined by the local health departments.
“The aim is that it will be a temporary job and (we’re) guessing maybe six months, but like everything with COVID, who really knows?” Mahoney said. “We’re trying to get this going as fast as we can. ... Training needs to be consistent. It’s a lot of work but you do what you’ve got to do.”
A high school diploma or equivalency is required for those seeking jobs, and a willingness to go into the field to interview hard-to-reach contacts.
In hiring, special consideration will be given to those who are unemployed, have community engagement experience and live in the communities in which they will work. Among the qualifications mentioned by DHHS: “Successful contact tracers require excellent communication skills with an empathetic mindset.”
NPR reported Monday that two former federal health officials are urging that $46 billion be included in a new coronavirus aid package, with $12 billion being devoted to adding to the contact tracing workforce. Andy Slavitt, who served as director of Medicare and Medicaid under President Barack Obama, and Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration for President Donald Trump, said a workforce of 180,000 contact tracers was needed, NPR reported.
NPR reported that the National Association of County and City Health Officials is recommending that states have 30 contact tracers per 100,000 residents. If North Carolina gets to 500 contact tracers, NPR said, its data showed that the state would have 2.4 tracers per 100,000.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 2:26 PM.
