McLean County Health Department aims to boost contact tracing at ISU

Posted on August 17, 2020

*The project director and field contact tracer would work until grant money runs out or through May 31, 2021, which ever comes first. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)*

By Heart of Illinois ABC

NORMAL – Plans are in the works for the McLean County Health Department to expand contact tracing for COVID-19, specifically for Illinois State University.

The McLean County Board of Health, at a special meeting next Wednesday, will consider using contact tracing grant money from the state government to hire a project director at a cost of $32.44 per hour and a field contact tracer at an hourly rate of $21.29.

The board next Wednesday will also decide whether to sign off on a memorandum of understanding with ISU Student Health Services to conduct contact tracing on campus.

The project director and field contact tracer would work until grant money runs out or through May 31, 2021, which ever comes first.

The county’s board of health will consider the actions a week after ISU’s Board of Trustees voted to sign a five-month, $3.3 million contract with Pekin’s Reditus Laboratories to perform surveillance testing on campus.

Surveillance tests are performed on people who don’t have symptoms, but the results can aid in determining COVID-19 trends and hot spots.

Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year. It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city. Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University. We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk. Going to work every day for some people means…