Newsom Announces Giant Scaling Up of Contact Tracing, Opens Retail Sectors

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In a major move forward toward normalcy across the state of California, Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday announced the state would be training 3 thousand new contact tracing personnel each week, with a near term goal to have a small army of 20 thousand people locating and helping to isolate anyone who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

The training program is being led by UCLA and UC San Francisco, and will feature both online and in person work. Most of the staff will be drawn from existing state and county employees.

Sonoma County’s Health Officer has already announced plans to put hundreds of county employees to work tracing those who may have come in contact with infected individuals. That local effort is part of the governors overall state effort.

Meantime, Newsom said that over the weekend the state reached a milestone of 30 thousand daily coronavirus tests, with the goal of reaching 60 to 80 thousand daily tests before large sectors of the state’s economy can be reopened.

Locally, 2 new testing centers that will for the first time allow anyone who makes an appointment to be screened opened Tuesday in Sonoma County. The sites at Santa Rosa High School and the Petaluma campus of Santa Rosa J.C. will test around 260 clients a day, part of the county’s goal to reach 700-800 tests each day. Currently the county operates a drive through site for healthcare workers, first responders and essential business employees. Clinics and hospitals also conduct tests locally.

Newsom also announced a plan to allow a wide swath of retail businesses to reopen their doors, with restrictions on Friday. However, modifications on operations mean that only online ordering and curbside delivery of goods will be allowed for now. On Thursday the governor said the state plans to release a complete list of guidelines that must be met before those businesses can resume operations.

Also announced Monday was a loosening of restrictions on more rural counties in the state which have been pushing for more freedom to reopen due to a lower incidence of coronavirus infections. Newsom said the state would allow those counties to have more local control, but any acceleration of activity would have to be accompanied by a capacity to treat any surge that occurs, and do contact tracing locally.