Test. Trace. Quarantine. That's the three-step process health experts have spoken about again and again as the basis for which communities can safely reopen in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On May 13, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo toured the Harris County Public Health Department and talked about the onboarding of a number of contact tracers.
Judge Hidalgo also thanked the epidemiologists who have been working to contain the spread of COVID-19. She welcomed the contract tracers already recruited by the county to help contain the virus.
The city of Houston and Harris County have a fairly robust drive-thru testing site program, with currently about a dozen free locations throughout the Houston-Harris County area. Now, both the city and county are ramping up their contact tracer programs. Dubbed disease detectives, these are the people who will track down those who may have been exposed to people who tested positive for COVID-19.
Over the past two weeks, both Harris County and Houston have announced they would hire an additional 300 contact tracers to do exactly the type of work public officials have urged.
About 200 contact tracers are onboard and will be trained by this Friday. They expect to have the full 300 trained by May 22.
