In a bid to get residents infected with coronavirus to answer contact tracers’ questions, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health will be offering $20 gift cards for full participation in the interviews, officials said Monday.
Less than 50% of L.A. County residents with coronavirus have provided contact tracers with information on people they had close contact with, Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a Monday news conference.
“People have told us that they’re fearful of losing their housing, their jobs and their relationships,” Ferrer said. “There is also likely an inherent distrust of providing anybody with their personal information.”
The health director assured residents that all records are confidential and information is not shared with any other agencies or individuals.
There are 2,500 employed in L.A. County to call close contacts of people that test positive for the virus. It’s meant to help residents take precautions and get tested so health officials can track and contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The calls can take up to an hour as the tracers try to gather information on who else may have been exposed.
“It can be stressful, and it requires that folks look through their calendars, work schedules, and other documents,” Ferrer said in announcing the gift cards.
The county is seeing a spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, with workplaces like garment factories, meatpacking plants and food processing centers experiencing some of the worst outbreaks in the county. There were a total of 159,045 confirmed cases and another 4,104 deaths as of Monday.
“Contact tracing is a valuable tool for slowing the spread of COVID-19, but it cannot and should not be expected to single handedly stop our outbreaks,” Ferrer said. “We have to consider the sheer scale of effects of the infections here in our county.”
The department as of Monday was investigating more than 1,000 coronavirus outbreaks and was seeing almost 3,000 new cases confirmed each day.
“Without a doubt, the number one driver of the surge that we are experiencing is simple to identify: People are interacting with each other and not adhering to the recommended prevention measures. Contact tracing cannot solve for that,” the health department said.
The county’s health officer order mandates that those with COVID-19 isolate and that all their close contacts quarantine.
Residents with positive coronavirus lab results can call 833-540-0473 to complete a case interview and connect to resources, seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.