NC is hiring 250 contact tracers for coronavirus. It got 1,000 applications in 24 hours
North Carolina announced it was hiring 250 contact tracers on Wednesday.
The jobs were posted that afternoon and — within 24 hours — more than 1,000 people “submitted an interest to be hired,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said during a press conference Friday.
“These are going to be people calling folks at their home, and sometimes even going in person, if necessary,” she said of the applicants.
Contact tracing is thought to be a key step in reopening the U.S. after the coronavirus shut down most restaurants, bars, hair salons and retailers, McClatchy News reported. Contact tracers are called upon to track down people who may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.
It’s not a glamorous job — but it can be vital to public health during a disease outbreak, Keren Landman, an epidemiologist and journalist who previously helped with contact tracing, wrote for NPR.
In Massachusetts, state officials have teamed with Partners in Health — a Boston-based nonprofit — to hire 1,000 contact tracers, McClatchy News reported.
According to the posted job qualifications, health officials were looking for “people who can empathize with ‘distressed individuals’ and possess excellent interpersonal skills,” McClatchy reported.
North Carolina is doing the same.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services created the Carolina Community Tracing Collaborative in partnership with Community Care of North Carolina and the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers. They’ll be working with Partners in Health in Massachusetts to set up the tracing model, The News & Observer reported.
The state already has 250 contact tracers but is hoping to have 500 by the end of May, according to the N&O.
Paul Mahoney, vice president for communications for Community Care of North Carolina, told the N&O the positions will be temporary — they could last around six months, but it could be longer depending on how cases progress.
On Friday, Cohen said DHHS is hoping to hire people in their own communities and will particularly focus on those who are out of work because of COVID-19.
Applicants are expected to have access to a laptop or computer, a high school diploma, fluency in English and the “ability to show empathy to distressed individuals,” according to the job posting.
DHHS is hoping to have everyone hired, trained and “ready to deploy” by the end of May, Cohen said.
