The Madison County Personnel and Labor Relations Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve the job description for temporary contact tracers employed by the Madison County Health Department.
During the meeting, Director of Public Health Toni Corona explained that Madison County has secured a grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health to aid in COVID-19 funding, including hiring contact tracers.
“The positions are necessary for us to continue in our COVID response,” she said. “The grant covers all costs associated with this.”
Corona said the grant is set to end May 31, 2021, but can be continued if the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing.
“God help us all if we’re not to a point by May of next year where we no longer need contact tracing,” she said. “I’m hoping by that point we have a vaccine and COVID is a thing of the past.”
She added that she “needed these positions pretty much yesterday” and plans to begin filling the positions right away.
“We were just a little stymied in the process because of the time it took for the grant to actually get executed from the Illinois Department of Public Health,” she said. “The last thing we wanted to do was hire anyone and not have the money to follow up and pay the positions.”
Corona said the positions will primarily consist of online and phone communication. Those hired to fill the positions will be trained. As of Tuesday evening, the job opportunity had not yet been posted on Madison County’s website.
Committee member Don Moore asked Corona how many employees she plans on hiring.
Corona responded that she will begin with 10 contact tracers, but she will consider hiring more if they are needed.
“It’s a very fluid situation,” she said.
She added that the metric is to have 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents, which would amount to 75 contact tracers in Madison County. However, she said that she thinks that number is too large.
“I can’t imagine us hiring 75 tracers, Mr. Moore,” she said.
Moore also asked how much the position will pay.
Corona responded that the union positions will start at $21.77 per hour.