The Pennsylvania Department of Health today announced more than 4,000
close contacts of COVID-19 cases have been identified and monitored to
date through the contact tracing efforts of 500 trained contact tracers
throughout the state, including 130 state health nurses. These efforts
include the support from the six county health departments and four
municipal health departments who have primary responsibility for all
efforts inside their jurisdiction.
Pennsylvania’s public health professionals are the backbone of contact
tracing and are supported by volunteers to supplement their ongoing work
and case management technology tools to track, manage and evaluate
efforts.
Over 800 contract tracers have volunteered through the ServPA platform,
at least 50 through AmeriCorps and hundreds through other community
organizations or academic institutions. The state has focused on
building partnerships with organizations like AmeriCorps, who are
volunteering 50 individuals to perform contact tracing this summer and
exploring an additional 100 individuals in the fall. This month, Temple
University has plans to onboard 200 students to help with contact
tracing.
Across the commonwealth, regional consortiums will work to assess the
number of contact tracers needed in each area, help recruit contact
tracers and make sure training and education are available, and
coordinate information and data to ensure consistency within the region.
In the southwest region, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation helped to
quickly mobilize the initial membership of the regional consortium and
the department will continue to seek partners in this region and as it
continues coordination to begin consortium meetings in the remaining
regions: Northwest, Northcentral, Northeast, Southcentral and Southeast.
To ensure a healthy Pennsylvania for all, especially during these
unprecedented times, the Wolf administration will only partner with
organizations and entities throughout this contact tracing strategy that
have an established commitment to non-discriminatory practices.
For information on the state’s contact tracing plan and more about the
contact tracing process, visit
https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Contact-Tracing.aspx.
Those who would like to become a contact tracer, as either an
individual or a group, can find information to sign up at
https://www.health.pa.gov/Pages/default.aspx.
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