Marin County Partners With ​University​ For Coronavirus Tracing

MARIN COUNTY, CA – Local university students will have a timely lab class assignment this fall semester: Help Marin County conduct contact tracing of COVID-19 transmission and lend much-needed assistance to specialists on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Marin County Public Health has partnered with Dominican University of California — the county's only four-year university — to offer a public health contact tracing course. Contact investigation and tracing involves discovering a person's connections with other individuals who have tested positive for a disease and informing them of the need to be tested for possible exposure.

Contact tracing is a key tool used to identify who has been exposed to COVID-19, according to Dr. Lisa Santora, the county's deputy public health officer.

"What better partnership could there be than a university and a public health department to build a new workforce that responds to this pandemic?" Santora said.

Students in the Global Public Health class will be trained in the rules of contact tracing and technical expertise in public health software. They will get to work remotely with county public health professionals during the online one-unit course.

A team of public health faculty plans to provide leadership during the course and allow students to participate in a real contract tracing interview. If they develop their skills, the students potentially would provide supervised contract tracing themselves, according to the county.

"To be able to partner with Dominican and show there's critically needed employment in public health, we can provide opportunities for students to meaningfully contribute to a pandemic response," Santora said. "That is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

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About half the people working on contact tracing now are volunteers, according to the county. It will take more than volunteers to effectively handle the demand in the coming weeks and months, Santora said.

"We want to be prepared for the ebbs and flows of volunteers as we move forward in this pandemic," Santora said.

"And we also know that as the school year starts there will be more social activity and possibly an increased number of cases in our county. Having that workforce development opportunity with the university will have us better prepared as we see the increases in cases, which we do expect to see."

The county's Department of Health and Human Services is providing funding for the course. Although some spots will be reserved for nursing majors, the course is open to students of all majors.

Also see:

• California Coronavirus: Latest Updates On Cases, Orders, Closures
• Coronavirus In Marin County: Latest News
• Marin Partners With Bay Area Company For Coronavirus Testing
• Marin County Ends Ban On Reusable Bags Amid Coronavirus Pandemic