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No more excuses. It’s time for IDPH to get its act together on contact tracing

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Illinois

* Gov. Pritzker announced the hiring of someone to run the state’s contact tracing program on May 1, almost two full months ago. Dr. Wayne Duffus promised a “soft rollout” by the end of May. But Kelsey Landis with the Belleville News-Democrat reports that finding information about the state’s contact tracing efforts is nearly impossible and people who want contracts are still waiting to hear from the state…

Health experts say contact tracing is essential to slowing the virus’ spread and to ascertaining when it’s safe to reopen portions of the economy or shut them down.

Yet few details on Illinois’ efforts are readily available to the public. The Illinois Department of Public Health did not respond to a request for information about contact tracing metrics. […]

After learning about the need, community colleges and universities statewide started to train hundreds of people who hoped to become tracers. Experts such as Silva leveraged their resources to make ready. But she said her group, the Contact Tracing Corps, is still waiting to hear from the state after submitting an interest form more than a month ago. […]

Massachusetts also includes a status for contact tracing on its daily update, telling residents whether their efforts are increasing, holding steady or decreasing.

Kellie Steele, a medical student helping with Loyola’s contact tracing collaborative, hopes the state will follow the lead of states like Massachusetts in its transparency about contact tracing. But Illinois isn’t the only state failing to provide that information, she added.

Go read the whole thing. And try this link if the other doesn’t work for you.

* Meanwhile…

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration is replacing two top Illinois Department of Public Health officials in charge of the state’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 through nursing homes, WBEZ has learned.

Nursing home residents account for more than half of deaths in Illinois tied to the coronavirus, according to state data. The personnel moves come as the state’s daily COVID case numbers begin to shoot up again as the state opens up.

Debra Bryars, the IDPH deputy director who headed the Office of Health Care Regulation, left last Monday and has been replaced by Daniel Levad, a long-time IDPH staff member, department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold confirmed.

Levad, named the office’s acting deputy director, until recently was chief of an IDPH section focused on intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

The administration is totally mum on this topic, as well.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 1:50 pm

Comments

Massachusetts is the model to follow. This administration has done a good job following the New England states in stopping the spread, but when they diverge into their own plan or vision it fails because of lack of execution. IDES as well is another example of this.

Comment by Almost the weekend Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:03 pm
The State’s procurement and hiring processes do not work well generally. When something is needed quickly, they’re even worse.

Comment by fs Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:08 pm
Slow reporting of COVID test results make contact tracing almost meaningless.

Comment by Sue F Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:14 pm
May 1st was almost 3 full months ago, not 2 as the lead here says.

Comment by ryan Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:19 pm
JB has been promising this since May 1st

“Illinois will need an estimated 3,810 contact tracers”

https://www.nwherald.com/2020/05/01/illinois-will-need-3-800-contact-tracers-program-could-cost-80-million/ay0×2sv/

Comment by Donnie Elgin Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:21 pm
Does this have to do with the budget? Understand CARES ACT funding can be used for expenses. The R’s want the unused CARES Act dollars to be used by the states for OpEx. Maybe Pritzker is waiting to understand what happens in Congress before tapping more of this?

Comment by 1st Ward Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:25 pm
Well it’s a difficult task that requires excellent execution. As widespread as this disease is, and with many people simply unwilling to cooperate it is even more difficult. Plus this disease impacts everyone differently, which makes it even harder to track. It isn’t like Ebola.

It was always going to be an incredible effort, and Illinois doesn’t do incredible very well.

Comment by SSL Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:27 pm
What Sue F said at 2:14.

Comment by Collinsville Kevin Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:38 pm
suef. Correct. And who amongst us, feeling no symptoms, randomly gets tested. CdC reports a guestimate of 40% asymptomatic. Some doctors think the number could be as high as 75%. But this number is just really anyone’s guess.

Comment by Blue Dog Dem Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:38 pm
I’m one who has been very grateful to this governor and his administration in handling the pandemic crisis, but I can be thankful for things in the overall and see things with a critical eye and shake my head in wonderment to three major failings that are sometimes, at times, lost to except those immediately effected.

The nursing home challenges have yet to be fully discussed and found where bettering of what we didn’t know is addressed.

The IDES debacle, currently an ongoing problem that has yet to be fully turned around to find a righting of the ship…

… and this mysterious lacking of contract tracing as the “third T” to helping Illinois fight the virus, and the up and running aspect of this critical program.

We are weeks and months into this pandemic, we’re still not through the first wave, with neighboring states deciding different and more challenging ways to be open, these three items I’ve listed are items that need internal movement and changes that the administration need not look to others outside to change things.

I’m looking forward to positive moving updates in all THREE of these continual problem areas where shuffling people need to stay put and dig into solutions to continue the positive the governor and the administration is also doing fighting the virus.

The time of “we’re working on it” is past. We should be at the “here’s how far we’ve come” in positive action.

Daylight is burning.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:38 pm
I agree with OW that the administration generally deserveses good marks, with some notable problems.

We may have needed 3,800 contact tracers back in May. But because of reopening and the lack of contact tracers, the pandemic has grown, the number of infected has grown and the number of contact tracers needed has grown.

COVID Act Now estimates we have about 1,400 contact tracers currently but need 7,000.

The pandemic is growing exponentially, the number of contacts to be traced is growing exponentially, but the governor’s hiring is proceeding arithmetically and at a very slow pace.

We are not going to hire our way out of this one.

The governor needs to set aside or minimize his privacy concerns and utilize the digital notification systems that rely on Bluetooth to notify those who are at risk.

Great leaders can admit they were wrong.

Comment by Thomas Paine Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 2:50 pm
I agree with Willy.
Overall great job by Pritzker and IDPH, but having watched the vast majority of his 70+ daily briefings, the answers re nursing homes has always felt hollow, or incomplete.. More tap dancing than leadership.
I’m guessing that’s why the change of personnel here, JB feels it too.

Comment by GregN Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 3:05 pm
I’m baffled by this and several states that have done well otherwise have not gotten this together. I don’t understand what the barriers are–the models for doing it exist–the expertise is there because we do it on a smaller scale all of the time. So I don’t understand other than the scaling up issue, this is such a failure for so many places doing well otherwise. So, yeah, the admin needs to get it together because this is critical to reopening and staying reopened as well as just safety.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 3:18 pm
Thanks, Rich, for flagging these failures in what has otherwise been a decent response by the state. I cannot for the life of me see why Illinois hasn’t managed to train and hire enough contact tracers. It seems like one of the easier aspects of this crisis to handle.

In my relatively rural part of the state, the local health department has pulled out all the stops and done a good job of contact tracing–but solely by reassigning everyone in the unit to contact tracing, leaving other work undone. They are ramping up staff now, but who knows if it will be enough if schools and colleges reopen.

Comment by Doc Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 3:20 pm
The time of we’re working on it was passed 3 months ago. Jay Bob and his BTIA have made no discernible progress in the IDES debacle (now it comes out they overpaid some of the few who actually got benefits and are demanding repayment). Contact tracing, which we were told was vital to arresting the spread of the virus has not happened to any kind of effective degree. We are nearly 6 months in here and no good excuse exists for this level of incompetence.

Comment by Captain Obvious Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 3:30 pm
=== BTIA===

That was the last administration.

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 3:32 pm
I’m fascinated by the response to this post compared to the question of the day. Contact tracing is essential to economic recovery, but the response above is far more active and centered on an issue of opening. There’s a lot of magical thinking about opening up things without the very basic fact reopening without controlling the pandemic is worse for the economy than anything.

Comment by ArchPundit Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 3:55 pm
I know 10 people that have tested positive. Most in the last month. Not a single one of them has been contacted by a contact tracer. That is a complete failure.

Comment by Smalls Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 4:12 pm
I think enforcing indoor mask mandates is more important than contract tracing (not that we shouldn’t do both) - when you see 1/3 of the people on the bus without a mask, how many people would you need to contact-trace that if it were a spreader event? Take this manpower, send them to restaurants, follow-up with serious penalties for mask/distance/capacity violator.

Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 4:31 pm
Rich, some enterprising investigative journalist should FOIA records to get to the bottom of the contact tracing contracts were let. were there competitive bids? was the governor’s office involved? were members of the governor’s family involved in this? Have members of the governor’s family recommended vendors who have received state contacts? not suggesting anything nefarious, but i am suggesting that somebody weighed in on decisions to expedite them, and maybe the beset vendor wasn’t always selected? its worth a look. how tough is it to lob in a foia?

Comment by rentoria sanatoria Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 4:37 pm
have they even started hiring contact tracers yet? somehow I remember a presser where they said August which I assumed meant they would best that start. guess not.

Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 4:42 pm
Lake County -

It’s not “either contact tracing or spread prevention.”

It’s gotta be both.

Or we have to shut stuff down.

Comment by Thomas Paine Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 4:47 pm
Is IDPH trying to hire them as contractual employees or union employees? If the contact tracers are going to be contractual employees, then this should have been done a long time ago. It doesn’t take very long to get those processed and bring people onboard. If they’re supposed to be full-time IDPH union employees, however, then that would explain the delay. Hiring through that process takes months, you’ve got to go through a zillion rules about job postings, CMS testing, interview processes, etc. I don’t know why you’d try to hire them that way when time is of the essence, but it’s the only explanation I can think of for it taking this long

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 5:35 pm
I know I’m late with this. It’s Illinois, there is always an excuse.

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 6:50 pm
Two months ago, I started making the rounds around illinois promoting a simple grass roots voluntary contact tracing program that would not cost the state, the counties, or the municipalities a single penny. It is called ‘Sign In to Dine In.

With the out of control rise in cases in more than half the states and Illinois numbers on the rise, and looking at JB’s contact tracing goals, it is not going to be enough.

It is time to draw on the volunteer spirit of Americans. Only together can we beat the Coronavirus. Wearing a mask and social distancing is a good start. But we can and we must do more.

In the same way that ‘Adopt a Highway’ works to keep our highways free of litter, ‘Sign In to Dine In’ contact tracing asks people to adopt their favorite restaurant(s) and ask them or help them introduce a simple, voluntary, almost no cost program that would be invaluable to local health department contact tracers in the event an employee or diner at a restaurant tests positve for Covid-19.

It centers around the simple proposition:
“If you would like to be notified in the event that you or someone in your party may have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus while dining here, please let us know how we can reach you quickly, so that you can take appropriate steps to protect you and your family.” What responsible person would not want to know?

I’ve tried to get an answer to a very simple question, “If an employee or customer of a restaurant tests positive for Covid-19, what’s the protocal to notify all the people that dined there on the same day the infected person(s) did?” What about visitors from other parts of Illinois or from other states? I have tried several avenues to get an answer. I am hoping some journalist may eventually asks the question. A lot of people in my county want to know. They don’t give two sh*ts what the positivity rate is. They just want to know what’s being done to keep them safe. Trust me, they are not feeling it.

Read about the program here: http://www.pete4illinois.com/covid-19/trace/

#SignIntoDineIn

Comment by pete4illinois Tuesday, Jul 28, 20 @ 8:15 pm