Governor JB Pritzker on Monday announced the launch of Illinois’ statewide contact tracing program for COVID-19 cases in two pilot counties as the state begins to fine-tune its latest weapon to fight the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Contact tracing, which was used early on in the state’s coronavirus outbreak when the number of cases was manageably small, consists of tracers interviewing people who have newly tested positive about who they had significant contact with in the past 48 hours.
The two counties were chosen “for having significant needs in terms of case numbers in vulnerable populations, a capacity to grow their contact tracing and great existing collaborations of public health personnel, medical students and volunteers already on the ground,” Pritzker said.
The governor said Illinois’ contact tracing program will consist of three parts: a disease reporting software, a common management platform and an app to be used by coronavirus patients and the people they came in contact with.
People interested in becoming part of the contact tracing program, including becoming a tracer, should visit IDPH’s on Monday reported 2,294 new cases of COVID-19, as well as 59 new deaths.
