San Francisco city authorities stated Wednesday they are increase a contact tracing project that they hope will become released throughout the Bay Area throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
City authorities said that up until now 50 librarians, city workers and medical students have been trained to do the tracing. The task will deploy an app developed by Dimagi Inc., a for-profit software business that has been working with the federal Centers for Illness Control and Avoidance.
Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s director of public health, stated at a news conference that the city hopes to have 150 people trained in two weeks. The city now has English- and Spanish-speaking tracers however needs to broaden to workers fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and Tagalog, he said.
These workers will call people who have touched with an individual who has actually evaluated favorable for COVID-19 and after that check in daily, either by text or telephone, to keep an eye on symptoms.
He stated it was necessary that the public comply with the trackers– there have been circumstances in which individuals have actually refused– and stressed that the screening would be done in complete confidence and that no information would be given to immigration authorities.
” We are not going to be asking for sensitive information or Social Security numbers or citizenship status,” Colfax stated.
Mayor London Breed stated at the news conference that when the time comes to think about relaxing some shelter-in-place limitations, contact tracing will be crucial to securing public health.
The city is increasing coronavirus screening, however there continues to be a shortage of swabs and of what Colfax called “the gunk” positioned on the swab to support the sample as it is transferred to a device.
” The biggest barrier is the instability of the supply chain,” he stated.
Police Chief William Scott, who also spoke at the news conference, stated individuals ought to not go to San Francisco for the yearly April 20, or 4/20, event of marijuana.
” If we have to cite, we will,” he said.
The city continues to have difficulty with camping tent encampments. A city authorities in charge of homeless work stated officials go out to these encampments frequently to explain the pandemic and to firmly insist that camping tents be moved 6 feet apart.
