Cook County Announces $41 million COVID-19 Contact Tracing Grant Award

CHICAGO — Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) today announced that CCDPH will be receiving almost $41 million in grant funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health to rapidly scale-up its COVID-19 contact tracing program in suburban Cook County over the next three to six months. The funding will allow CCDPH to focus on communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

“This is a win for Cook County,” said President Preckwinkle. “What we have seen with this pandemic is another reminder that until we address the structural issues black and brown communities face, they will continue to be disproportionately impacted. I am committed to addressing all of the drivers in our communities that contribute to such inequities, and this funding will certainly help.”

Public health departments routinely reach out to the contacts of positive cases when investigating communicable disease outbreaks to let them know they have been exposed to a disease and to provide instructions and monitoring to keep it from spreading to others. This grant will allow CCDPH to scale its contact tracing program and staffing commensurate with the numbers of cases in suburban Cook County.

“Contact tracing is crucial to preventing and controlling the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Rachel Rubin, CCDPH Co-Lead and Senior Medical Officer. “We currently have about 25 contact tracers working on COVID-19. Expanding our workforce to 400 people will enable CCDPH to reach up to 90% of case contacts within 24 hours.”

CCDPH intends to earmark as much as 20%, or $8 million, of the grant funding for community-based organizations located within, or primarily serving residents of, communities of high economic hardship, discrimination and racism to: conduct effective public health education and outreach; provide enhanced COVID-19 case management and referrals for resources; and address other social and economic impacts, such as housing instability and lack of food.

Like other public health departments across the nation stretched by overwhelming numbers of cases and limited staff and testing, CCDPH’s investigations to this point have largely focused on the most at-risk, vulnerable populations, including people over age 65 and/or those with serious medical conditions; especially those who were hospitalized or living in congregate settings. With the increasing capacity for testing and contact tracing in Illinois, CCDPH will be able to broaden case investigation and testing to the general population.

“We will phase in hiring over the next several months and expect to have everyone – the contact tracers, case investigators, care resource coordinators and supervisory staff – all on board sometime in the fall,” said Dr. Kiran Joshi, also a CCDPH Co-Lead and Senior Medical Officer.

For more information, please visit: https://www.cookcountypublichealth.org/communicable-diseases/covid-19/contact-tracing/.