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By Heart of Illinois ABC
NORMAL – Plans are in the works for the McLean County Health Department to expand contact tracing for COVID-19, specifically for Illinois State University.
The McLean County Board of Health, at a special meeting next Wednesday, will consider using contact tracing grant money from the state government to hire a project director at a cost of $32.44 per hour and a field contact tracer at an hourly rate of $21.29.
The board next Wednesday will also decide whether to sign off on a memorandum of understanding with ISU Student Health Services to conduct contact tracing on campus.
The project director and field contact tracer would work until grant money runs out or through May 31, 2021, which ever comes first.
The county’s board of health will consider the actions a week after ISU’s Board of Trustees voted to sign a five-month, $3.3 million contract with Pekin’s Reditus Laboratories to perform surveillance testing on campus.
Surveillance tests are performed on people who don’t have symptoms, but the results can aid in determining COVID-19 trends and hot spots.
Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected].