Governor Pritzker Announces the Illinois Contact Tracing Collaborative: A Locally-Driven Approach to Massively Scale Up Contact Tracing
Launches with Pilot Programs in St. Clair and Lake Counties; Partners in Health Providing Playbook After Implementing the “Massachusetts Modelâ€
Monday, May 18, 2020
- Governor, Office of the
Chicago - Building on a robust, statewide effort to ensure Illinois can safely reopen, Governor Pritzker announced the Illinois Contact Tracing Collaborative, a locally-driven approach to scale up contact tracing in Illinois.
"With Illinois' daily availability of testing among the best in the nation, we want to grow our voluntary contact tracing so we can further control and reduce the rate of spread of COVID-19 and stop outbreaks in their tracks," said Governor JB Pritzker. "Knowing if you've been exposed to someone with COVID-19 gives everyday Illinoisans the ability to keep their families and co-workers and friends safe by helping them seek testing or self-isolate, and it helps us build a public health system that truly supports them if their exposure leads to actual infection."
The state is immediately engaging two local health departments to pilot this initiative: St. Clair County in the Metro East region and Lake County in the Northeast region. These local health departments were chosen for having significant needs in terms of case numbers in vulnerable populations, a robust capacity for tracing, and great existing collaborations of public health personnel, medical students and volunteers already on the ground.
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https://www2.illinois.gov/Pages/news-item.aspx?ReleaseID=21553
