It is estimated that the novel workforce estimator tool created by George Washington University’s, Milken Institute School of Public Health https://publichealth.gwu.edu, called the “Contract Tracing Workforce Estimator” will enable state and local public health officials to determine the number of COVID-19 cases plus other data. The tool will help to gauge the staff needed to trace contacts of all infected people in their jurisdiction.
“We know that the virus causing COVID-19 is a highly contagious and is spread by human contact”, said Edward Salsberg, Senior Research Scientist at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity http://www.gwhwi.org based at Milken Institute.
As he explains, “It is possible by using the data on the number of COVID-19 cases, the estimated number of contacts per infected persons and other information can be obtained. At this point, by using the estimator tool, it will be able to gauge the number of staff needed to effectively trace contacts of all infected people in their jurisdiction. The tool will help public health officials understand the need for social services which can impact the number of contact tracers needed to slow the spread of the infections.
The tool was developed in collaboration with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) https://astho.org and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) https://naccho.org. The interactive tool and map project is supported by the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) https://www.hrsa.gov with an award totaling $450,000.
Michael Fraser, CEO, ASTHO, said “Contact tracing is the core work of state, territorial, local, and tribal public agencies. Public health has an urgent need to scale up their workforce capacity to meet the challenge of COVID-19. The new estimator tool will help agencies prepare for the support they need in a more precise way by using their local and state experience and capacity as a start.”