Governor Edwards announces plans to hire up to 700 Louisianans to expand the state’s contact tracing program.
The program will be calling people who tested positive for COVID-19 and asking them to detail anyone who may have been infected by them. Edwards says you need to meet some criteria before you can be considered for the job.
“You have to be a high school graduate, you have to feel comfortable having a phone conversation with someone and entering data. Obviously you have to be compassionate and able to protect and honor patient privacy,” says Edwards.
Those interested in the job should email ContactTracing@LA.gov.
If you are identified as a close contact of a positive case contact tracers may ask you to self-quarantine for 14 days. Department of Health Assistant Secretary Alex Billioux says that’s the key part of contact tracing.
“We will not be able to contain the spread of the virus and have people being able to open parts of the economy if we do not adhere to quarantining and staying at home,” says Billioux.
Billioux says the program puts privacy at the forefront, and if you are called and asked to quarantine due to COVID exposure you won’t be told any personal information about who may have infected you.
Initial call center locations will be based in Lafayette and New Orleans and workers will be trained by LSU’s Stephenson Disaster Management Institute. In the short term, the contact tracing team is being expanded from 70 to 250 members.
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