A call for more contact tracers

A call for more contact tracers

HOPKINS EXPERTS SAY ITBEST TOOL WE HAVE TO MANAGEAND STOP THE SPREAD OFCOVI━19.

BUT WHAT DO CONTACTTRACERS DO?

AND WHOQUALIFIED FOR THESE JOBS ASDEMAND INCREASES?

WMA━2 NEWSABBY ISAACS HAS THOSE ANSWEFOR US.LOOKLIV━ JOHNS HOPKINSEXPERTS ESTIMATE THERE NEEDSTO BE ABOUT 70 THOUSAND MORECONTACT TRACERS NATIONWIDE.THTO PEOPLE TO INVESTIGATE EACHPOSITIVE CASE TO STOPCOMMUNITY TRANSMISSION OF THEVIRUS.

Dr. Emily Gurley//Associate Scientist, JohnsHopkins Center for GlobalHealt━ The whole point ofcontact tracing is to limitthe contact of infectiouspeople with others in thecommunity so we can stoptransmission chains JOHNSHOPKINS EXPERTS SAY CONTACTTRACING COULD BE THE KEY TOCONTROLLING THIS PANDEMIC ITNOT A NEW JOB, BUT BECAUSECOVI━19 SPREADS MUCH MOREQUICKLY, THEY SAY THERE NEEDSTO BE MORE PEOPLE DOING THISWORK.

Dr. Crystal Watson//Senior Scholar, Johns HopkiCenter for Health Securit━ Weneed to dramatically scale upcontact tracing for the nationEXPERTS SAY ABOVE ALL, CONTACTRACERS NEED TO BE GOOD ATTALKING TO PEOPLE.

THEIR JOBIS TO REACH OUT TO COVI━19PATIENTS, ASK THEM TO ISOLATEAND MAKE SURE THEY HAVE ALLTHE RESOURCES THEY NEED.

THENTHEY'LL FIGURE OUT WHO THEYBEEN IN CONTACT WITH.

Dr.Gurle━ It can take time towalk through with a case wheretheydoing.

Also to identify phonenumbers or other contactinformation for people whomight be exposed Dr. Gurle━People whocan be infectious and infepeople ━3 days before theyever know themselves so ivery important that we findcontacts and ask them to limittheir contact with othepeople THEN THE CONTACT TRACERFOLLOWS THAT CHAIN OTRANSMISSION, LETTING PEOPLEKNOW THEYASKING THEM TO TAKE PROPERPRECAUTIONS TO STOP THESPREAD.

EXPERTS SAY WHILETHERE WILL BE AN INCREASE ITHESE JOBS, ITEVERYONE SHOULD BE INVOLVEDIN, AS THE STATE MOVES TOWARDSREOPENING.

Dr. watso━ Caseidentification and contacttracing really will allow usto get back to a little oresense of normalcy in the nearfuture so the more we can helpeach other and help publichealth do this contacttracing, the better off we areall going to be in the longrun with this virus.

LOOKLIV━ IN ADDITION TO PEOPSKILLS, EXPERTS SAY CONTACTTRACERS NEED TO KNOW THEBASICS ABOUT COVI━19 ANDTRANSMISSION, WHICH CAN BELEARNED IN TRAINING COURSESBEING DEVELOPED NOW.

FORWMA━2 NEWS IMILLIONS MORE AMERICANS