Remember when California was throwing everything into contact tracing?
The state was going to move 10,000 workers into place to do the detective work and reach people who might have been exposed to a person infected with COVID-19.
In a new report, the state auditor said it was only 2,200 workers and instead of interviewing 85% of the cases, it was 40%. Worse yet, contact tracing staff were only able to identify an additional potentially exposed person in 16% of the cases.
Infection rates have plummeted since December when the audit was done, but the results come as the governor worries about variants triggering another surge.
"The disease is not taking Easter weekend off," said Gov. Gavin Newsom. "This disease is not taking spring break off. This disease remains as deadly as it’s ever been. The only construct that’s changed, the reason why (we have) 1.9% positivity over the last couple weeks – among the lowest positivity rates in America – is because of the vaccine efforts and because of the natural antibodies for those that have been exposed."
The audit suggested the state health department revamp the contact tracing program, which officials said they're already doing, including giving schools and businesses access to a data base.
That will allow schools and businesses to easily share information about possible exposures.
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