Province hiring 600 new COVID-19 contact tracers, case managers
Posted October 14, 2020 2:14 pm.
The Province of Ontario announced Wednesday that they are hiring 600 new contact tracers and case managers to help track, trace and isolate new cases of COVID-19.
One hundred contact tracers have already been hired and many will begin work this week. Up to 500 more recruits are expected to be hired by mid-November. Over 200 will be onboarded for Toronto and 150 for Ottawa, both considered COVID-19 hotspots.
The new hires are part of the government’s fall COVID-19 planning and are included in the $1.37 billion funding dedicated to expand testing and contact tracing in the province.
Premier Ford said thanks to the contact tracers already on board, they have managed to reach “cases and contacts faster, with 30 public health units reaching 90 per cent of cases within 24 hours.”
In addition, the province says public service staff have been volunteering for redeployment to provide support for contact tracing this fall and winter. Over 600 Statistics Canada employees have been assisting with contact follow-up since July.
There are currently over 2,750 case and contact management staff across all public health units in the province. With the 600 new recruits and 600 Statistics Canada staff, the total will soon be nearly 4,000.
