State, Non-Profit to Deploy 1,000 Case Workers to Trace Contacts of COVID-19 Patients

Working with a non-profit partner, Gov. Charlie Baker late last week called for 1,000 case workers to deploy throughout the state to track the people who had been in contact with patients who are positive for the COVID-19 virus.

In his daily update on Thursday, Baker announced the creation of the COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative (CTC) to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Massachusetts. The state will work in collaboration with Partners In Health. It is the first effort of its kind nationwide.

The initiative will focus on trac­ing the contacts of confirmed pos­itive COVID-19 patients, and sup­porting individuals in quarantine, and builds on the efforts already underway from the Command Center to leverage public health college students to augment the contact tracing being done by local boards of health.

The Collaborative will deploy nearly 1,000 contact tracers throughout the state to connect with COVID-19 patients and their contacts to support Massachusetts’ efforts to track and contain the virus.

Led by the administration’s COVID-19 Response Command Center, Partners In Health will coordinate closely with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Contact tracing will be combined with the state’s efforts to increase testing and will provide support to people in quarantine in order to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“Enhanced contact tracing capability is another power­ful tool for public health offi­cials and health care providers in the battle against COVID-19,”  said Governor Charlie Baker. “Massachusetts is the only state in the nation implementing this type of programming, and this collaborative tracing initiative will break new ground as we work together to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

Partners In Health will pro­vide staff and contribute techni­cal expertise in community trac­ing. The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority (CCA) will stand up a virtual support center and maintain con­nectivity, while the Massachusetts Department of Health (DPH) will maintain data, guides and pro­cesses. Accenture, a leading glob­al professional services company, and Salesforce, a global leader in CRM, are implementing support center capabilities for the CTC’s tracing purposes.

“This is a key effort in the Commonwealth’s work to slow the spread of the virus by adding capacity to reach individuals who have come in close contact with individuals are confirmed posi­tive for COVID-19,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders. “I encourage residents to cooperate with the operation so that we can further slow the spread of COVID-19 in Massachusetts.”

Contact tracing through the CTC will support the Baker-Polito Administration’s ongoing efforts to expand bed capacity, increase personal protective equip­ment (PPE) supplies and provide resources for health care providers and patients.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.