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Without a Trace: This California County Has Stopped Contact Tracing as Coronavirus Surges

A month ago, everyone in Merced County infected with the coronavirus got a call from county officials, asking questions about whom they’d come in contact with. It’s a tracing process that experts say is critical to stopping the spread of the highly infectious disease. Now, facing a five-fold increase in...

COVID Contact Tracing Scammers Ask for Social Security Numbers

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned residents Monday about a new fraud scheme involving phony COVID-19 contact tracers. In this scheme, scam artists pretend to be contact tracers to trick Californians into divulging private personal information such as Social Security numbers, financial information, or health insurance information. These scam artists...

County Adds ‘Medical Investigators’ to Hunt Down COVID Cases

The Fresno County Health Department knew who to call for help tracking down COVID-19 cases — EMTs laid off because of a dip in service calls during the pandemic. Now, many of these EMTs are joining the county's 15-person MIT — Medical Investigation Team. The MITs are trained specifically to...

Fresno County Needs Contact Tracers, Isn’t Waiting for Newsom

Call, text, email, and repeat. Call, text, email, and repeat again. The job of a COVID-19 contact tracer, or what Gov. Newsom calls a "disease detective," isn't glamorous. But the job is so important that Fresno County must come up with 250 or more contact tracers to reopen the economy...

Virtual Academy Will Train ‘Disease Detectives’ by Tens of Thousands in CA

One of the keys to reopening our economy — and keeping it open — will rest in the hands of  "disease detectives." In the medical community, they're called contact tracers. The name describes exactly how they'll crack the cases. It's estimated that Fresno County alone will need 300 of them....

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