CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Cook County is investing tens of millions of dollars in contact tracing that will involve thousands of interviews each day.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the Cook County Department of Public Health announced Thursday that CCDPH will be receiving almost $41 million in grant funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health to rapidly scale-up its COVID-19 contact tracing program in suburban Cook County over the next three to six months.
The funding will allow CCDPH to focus on communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
“This is a win for Cook County,” Preckwinkle said. “What we have seen with this pandemic is another reminder that until we address the structural issues black and brown communities face, they will continue to be disproportionately impacted. I am committed to addressing all of the drivers in our communities that contribute to such inequities, and this funding will certainly help.”
Preckwinkle said the program will continue to mitigate the pandemic by identifying new cases quickly and helping residents who have been exposed to the disease.
"Cook County Department of Public Health will invest $40 million in COVID-19 relief funding into the contact tracing program. This investment will allow us to trace more than 3,000 new contacts each day," Preckwinkle said. "For Cook County to reopen, it is critical that we quickly ramp up our contact tracing capabilities. The program will help us continue to mitigate the pandemic by identifying new cases quickly and helping residents who’ve been exposed to someone carrying the disease.”
The goal is to help county residents isolate themselves or seek care if they need it to prevent further spread of the virus, Preckwinkle said.
Contact tracing is the process of talking to people who’ve been newly diagnosed with the coronavirus to determine who they’ve had close contact with.
The county will hire 400 people to work as contact tracers to start with someone who tests positive and reach out to those who have had close contact. There are currently 25 people doing this time consuming work.
Dr. Kiran Joshi said the county will prioritize hiring contact tracers from communities that have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic in order to establish trust within those communities.
“Contact tracing is crucial to preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, CCDPH Co-Lead and Senior Medical Officer, in a statement. “We currently have about 25 contact tracers working on COVID-19. Expanding our workforce to 400 people will enable CCDPH to reach up to 90 percent of case contacts within 24 hours.”
Dr. Rubin said people can currently express interest in becoming a contact tracer, though hiring won’t likely begin until the end of July with the intent to get people involved in early August.