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Pa. Emphasizing Importance of Ongoing COVID-19 Testing

Series: Coronavirus | Story 226

Pa. Director of Testing and Contact Tracing, Michael Huff, and Special Assistant on Contact Tracing for the Pa. Department of Health, Lindsey Mauldin, on Jan. 5 presented an update on the state’s COVID-19 testing and contact tracing efforts, emphasizing the need for continued testing as Pennsylvania begins vaccine rollout.

“To date over 8.3 million test results have been received in Pennsylvania,” Huff said. “Our COVID-19 testing provider, AMI, continues to offer regional testing in five counties each week. Last week, the regional sites tested approximately 4,000 individuals. Mauldin provided an update on the progress made in 2020 and what the department learned regarding the needs of those individuals reached by case investigators and contact tracers.

In 2020, the department hired more than 1,000 contact tracers and promoted some tracers to case investigators. By talking with individuals during the tracing process, contact tracers learned that there were needs to support individuals facing hardships with quarantine, things such as supports for food security, housing or even for those facing mental health or substance use disorder needs.

“We are fortunate to have 10 social support coordinators in the commonwealth today,” Mauldin said. “Expanding our contact tracing program and building a public health infrastructure to support the needs of COVID-19 cases could not have been done without federal funding

support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Through this federal funding, we have worked to build our public health infrastructure. We hope that as we move into this new year, there is additional funding available to support these ongoing efforts to keep Pennsylvanians safe and healthy.”

 

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