The Oregon Public Health Institute is pleased to co-lead the “Tracing Health” program with the Public Health Institute. Tracing Health is a COVID-19 contact tracing initiative supporting communities in the Pacific Northwest. Currently, OPHI focuses on Tracing Health projects in Washington County, OR and Clark County, WA. 

Contact tracing is a critical component of pandemic response, long used by public health officials around the world to stop transmission of infectious diseases and contain the spread of infection. Oregon and Washington counties that wanted to enter Phase 1 of reopening were required to have sufficient contact tracers to trace 95% of all new cases within 24 hours, a significant undertaking in Washington County, where the population is close to 600,000.

In developing the contract for contact tracing services, Washington County and OPHI/PHI agreed that it was crucial to prioritize hiring contact tracers from Washington County communities most impacted by COVID-19. Hiring local contact tracers from impacted communities allows for the cultural responsiveness that is critical in work that is inherently relational and dependent on trust.

COVID-19 disproportionately impacts people of color in our country. Nationally the Latinx community makes up 16.7% of the population and 32.9% of COVID-19 cases as of July 20, 2020. In Washington County, this disparity is even more notable, with the Latinx community making up 15% of the population and over 50 % of the COVID-19 cases.  Given COVID’s disproportionate impact on the Latinx community, we knew it would be important to ensure that we have Spanish speakers working seven days a week, while also maintaining capacity to serve communities who speak languages other than English or Spanish. 

We recruited for contact tracing positions through our partner networks, through Washington County’s community-based organization (CBO) partners, and through the Oregon Health Authority’s call for people interested in contact tracing. Our hiring process prioritized residents of Washington County who are bilingual/bicultural, traditional health workers, or referred by a CBO partner of Washington County Public Health or the Oregon Public Health Institute.

As of July 14, we have hired 41 people for our Washington County contact tracing project. Thirty-eight of them are bilingual or multilingual and 22 speak Spanish. Other languages represented on our team are Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Ilocano, Somali, Twi, French, Haitian Creole, Arabic, and Portuguese. All staff live in Washington County and several are traditional health workers.

OPHI is proud to support the people of Oregon by responding to this urgent need while centering our focus on advancing equity and reducing disparities. We know that our battle with COVID-19 will be a long one, and we are fully committed to growing Tracing Health as needed while maintaining the principles that will make this initiative a success.

Citations

“CDC COVID Data Tracker.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics.

County, Washington. “COVID-19 Case Counts by County and Week.” Washington County, Oregon, www.co.washington.or.us/apps/covid-19/.