Report 2020-612 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2020-612: California Department of Public Health: It Could Do More to Ensure Federal Funds for Expanding the State's COVID‑19 Testing and Contact Tracing Programs Are Used Effectively (Release Date: April 2021)

Recommendation #1 To: Public Health, Department of

To better leverage contact tracing as a tool to limit the spread of COVID-19, Public Health should, by May 15, 2021, reevaluate its contact tracing plan and update it to incorporate technological and medical advances in order to redefine how many tracing staff California needs and for how long it will need them.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Contact Tracing (CT) Program collaborated with state and local Public Health partners and utilized CT staff calculators developed by national expert organizations to determine a new California CT staffing estimate through March 2022. These models incorporated current scientific knowledge, actual data from the first twelve months of California's COVID-19 CT response, and national epidemiology estimates for projected potential COVID-19 case numbers in California during the remaining months of 2021. The inputs utilized in these models considered technology innovations in place in California that save staff time and expand local workforce capacity, including automated case and contact surveys as well as data portals that enable external partners (e.g., schools, businesses) to share case and exposed contact data with their local health jurisdictions (LHJs). The new plan averages 4 separate modeling results and includes estimated workforce needed within the primary staffing roles that implement community CT activities, specifically: case investigators (CI), contact tracers (CT), and CT team supervisors. Of note, this new model does not include projected staffing needs for CT in prisons and other settings that are not supported by Public Health's community CT Program and workforce, nor does it include projected staffing needed for investigating and managing outbreaks which require additional and more advanced staff. The program projects a need for 2,731 CI, CT, and supervisors. An additional 1,091 trained and experienced CI, CT, and supervisor staff should be available within local and state staffing reserves in case of an unanticipated case surge.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2020-612

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.