CLEVELAND — The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) is hiring contact tracers and supervisors to help track down how COVID-19 is spreading throughout the state.
These disease detectives will gather critical information from residents who are diagnosed with COVID-19 to determine close contacts and potential spread of the virus. Local health departments across the state, like the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, have used contact tracing to identify community spread and clusters.
"The state is looking to hire about 100 employees and they will be all around the state work virtually from home and will help any local health department that needs it," said Melanie Amato, ohio health department press secretary.
A contact tracer would be responsible for calling those newly diagnosed with cases to remind them of the importance to quarantine and isolate when necessary.
The duration of the contact tracing project could last anywhere from a year to 18 months, according to the ODH.
"Limiting contacts means the virus isn’t able to infect other people, so contact tracing is very important because we want to know where that disease is and if that person may be not sick enough to be hospitalized," she said. "We may never know if they’re a positive case of COVID so contact tracing is important because we can follow where the disease has been and where it started and how it spread so as quickly as we can isolate and quarantine people that any have come in contact with that positive case the more we are not letting the virus continue on."
Work is mostly remote with some travel necessary at times to conduct in-person interviews. The part-time position pays $18.59 an hour.
To apply and find more information, click here.
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