By Heart of Illinois ABC
BLOOMINGTON – McLean County has seen such a surge in cases, its contract tracers are no longer able to keep up.
At Monday’s board of health meeting, the health department and the board brainstormed what they could do to help slow down the rise of cases in McLean County.
“The shear volume of cases that we’ve seen in the past two or three weeks, has been just beyond manageable. We would need between 70, 80, 90 individuals to help us,” Health Dept. Admin. Jessica McKnight said.
McKnight says the best they can do to slow the spread is have contact tracers reach out to those who may have been infected before they go out, but their limited number of contact tracers is making that difficult.
“By the time that anyone is able to get ahold of a contact, let alone a case, then their contacts have already potentially become infected, or infected someone else,” McKnight said.
McKnight says the health department hired 10 additional contact tracers, bringing the total to 30, with about seven working directly with
ISU, and they are still interviewing and talking applications for more.
“Our contact tracing program at this point has failed. It’s not connecting with positives, and that means we’re relying on people to voluntarily distance themselves and report to their friends that they have been infected.” Vice Chairman Carlo Robustelli said.
Robustelli says the town needs to invest in more contact tracers, but McKnight says-money isn’t the problem.
“The money is not as big of in issue, like you’re saying, finding qualified candidates who are available now and able to commit to what we need them to do,” McKnight said.
Contact tracers are expected to work four to five hours per day, seven days a week. McKnight says it has been difficult finding people willing to commit to that schedule.
The board, along with McKnight, ultimately agreed they were doing all they could to fight the spread. They say it is now time for the community to step up.
“It is the personal responsibility of each individual in this community, to do what they need to do, to stop the spread,” County Administrator Camille Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says it is time to go back to the basics of hand washing, social distancing and wearing a mask.
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