Cole County Health Department brings in more contact tracers

Cole County’s health department is getting more help with tracking coronavirus cases within schools. Commissioners this week approved the hiring of 12 more COVID-19 contact tracers.

“There’s a great advantage of having people actually on the ground in those schools to walk through those seating charts and talk with those teachers,” said Chezney Schulte with the health department. “The student might not know who they sat next to or what those interactions were.”

Schulte says county leaders heard from both public and private school officials about the need to track student cases of the virus.

Eighteen percent of Cole County’s coronavirus cases have been in those younger than 20.