PORTLAND, Ore. — Contact tracing is a big part of any plan to reopen Oregon. Public health workers use contact tracing to find anyone who came in contact with a COVID-19 patient. They want to alert those people and make sure they get proper care.
In Multnomah County, they've added staff to handle the job.
"We started out with seven people who worked on this. We have almost five times the size of the crew we were in January," said Kim Toevs, the Communicable Disease Services Director for the Multnomah County Health Department.
Contact tracing is voluntary. Health officials don't have the authority to force anyone to answer their questions. They say most people are happy to cooperate.
Multnomah County has enough staff to handle the contact tracing load right now but plan to add more staff in the future.
Toevs said it's likely the county will see more cases of COVID-19 as the state gradually reopens.