BC to hire 500 health care professionals for increased COVID-19 contact tracing efforts

BC has announced its plan to hire 500 additional health professionals to increase contact tracing efforts across the province.

Those new public health teams will be used to follow up with close connections of people who've tested positive for the virus.

According to officials, public health has managed to reach 98% of the contacts of each new positive case.

“As we have seen in recent weeks, strong contact tracing is absolutely crucial when dealing with community outbreaks as we slowly and safely increase our contacts,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said.

Recruiting for the 500 positions will be done by public health authorities and is expected to target retired nurses and recent graduates.

The news of new hirings comes as new COVID-19 infections continue to surge.

On Tuesday, health officials announced that another 46 cases had been confirmed, bringing the total number of active cases to 472.

A total of 195 people have died of the disease in BC, however, the province has yet to record a COVID-19 related death in August.