Tarrant officials OK contact tracing plan to track down those with COVID — for now
Tarrant County leaders on Tuesday unanimously approved spending $14 million to hire temporary workers to boost local contact tracing, an effort officials have long said can help reduce the spread of coronavirus.
This comes one week after they rejected a similar plan that would have cost more than $20 million, saying they needed more information before they could sign off on spending that much money on this effort.
County staff scaled back their proposal by suggesting they use already existing office space, technology and laptop computers. They also plan to look for volunteers, let some employees work from home and hire staffers gradually, rather than all at one time.
This effort has the potential to help reduce COVID-19 cases locally, officials said.
“The sooner we can ID someone who is a positive case, ... the quicker we can keep them from spreading the virus to someone else,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said after county commissioners approved the funding for contact tracing.
But he said the county — which on Tuesday reported a total of 22,665 positive cases of coronavirus, which includes 304 deaths and 10,894 recoveries — needs to see results.
“I’m very interested in seeing statistics on a regular basis,” Whitley said. “If we aren’t bringing down those numbers, getting results, maybe we scrap the whole thing and try something new.”
Funding for this enhanced contact tracing effort will come from federal stimulus money known as the CARES Act. Earlier this year, students at the UNT Health Science Center helped with contact tracing.
Health officials have long said contact tracing is crucial in cutting down on community spread of coronavirus or any contagious disease.
Contact tracers talk to everyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 and make lists of the people with whom they’ve had direct contact. Workers then track down those people to let them know that they have been exposed and should self-quarantine for 14 days.
“We are very appreciative” of the funding, Vinny Taneja, Tarrant County’s public health director, said after the vote.
He has said Tarrant County has seen a surge in cases in recent weeks, but he’s encouraged by shifting data that shows COVID-like illnesses are down and hospitalizations of coronavirus patients have mostly stabilized.
“I’m starting to feel a little optimistic that the masking order” is making a difference, Taneja said. “But everybody needs to do the masking to break the trend.”
Regarding contact tracing, the original proposal was to hire 270 temporary staffers. The proposal approved Tuesday drops that number to 186.
Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius said private vendors may help with initial outreach to those with coronavirus through social media, text messages or phone calls to let people know who to be in touch with at the public health department.
“I think this is a good plan,” he said. “It’s not one where we will just go out and hire all these people. It gives staff the ability to move forward on a continuous basis to address these issues we are dealing with ... as it relates to coronavirus.”
Commissioner Roy Brooks said contact tracing is vital work that needs to be done.
“This is something we must do in order to be sure where the virus is in our community,” he said. “Whatever resources we need to commit to this, we should commit to this.”
