Connecticut coronavirus contact tracing plan faces hurdles: report
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Connecticut met Gov. Ned Lamont’s ambitious deadline for launching a coronavirus contact tracing program but municipal health directors said it could be weeks before it is actually effective, according to a report.
That’s because of delays associated with software, training and recruitment of volunteer workers, according to the Hartford Courant.
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Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont speaks to reporters at Gay City State Park in Hebron, Conn. on Thursday May 21, 2020. The governor held his daily COVID-19 briefing for the media at the park in advance of the Memorial Day weekend. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
The paper reported interviewing health directors responsible for implementing the contract tracing program who said they are unable to properly operate the new software program, either because of lack of training or possible bugs in the operating system.
Some said they hadn’t been trained, according to the paper. Others said the training was inadequate.
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One director told the newspaper he was given a one-hour webinar presentation. Most said they had not been provided with software manuals.
All of the directors said they have not been given specific offers of assistance from hundreds of volunteers the department said it has recruited or is in the process of recruiting.
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The Lamont administration said it was working closely with the health directors to build "the first-of-its-kind statewide contact tracing program” and now hopes to be fully staffed by late June, the Courant reported.
The directors said implementing a contact tracing program as part of Lamont’s phase one reopening may have been overly optimistic, the paper reported.
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“I don’t want any of my comments to suggest that I am throwing the state health department under the bus,” Farmington Valley Health District Director Jennifer Kertanis said. “The bigger picture here is you can’t expect systems to just automatically click a switch and be prepared to deal with situations of the magnitude of which we are dealing with when you have disinvested in your public health system for eons.”