Suburban Cook County COVID-19 Contact Tracing Initiative

Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) received almost $41 million in COVID-19 relief funding from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) via the FEMA Disaster Relief Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The overarching goal of IDPH’s COVID-19 LHD Contact Tracing Grant program is to build-up capacity and infrastructure of local health departments to rapidly scale-up and sustain major COVID- 19 contact tracing programs.

Contact tracing is a multi-step process of identifying, assessing and managing persons exposed to a positive COVID-19 case and connecting exposed persons to resources to assist them during quarantine.

CCDPH currently has about 25 contact tracers for the 2.5 million people who live in suburban Cook County. Suburban Cook County excludes Chicago, Evanston, Skokie, Oak Park, and Stickney Townships, which have their own state-certified health departments.

With the grant funding, CCDPH will expand its contact tracing workforce to 400 people. The expanded contact tracing program will reach 90% of contacts of persons who test COVID-19 positive within 24 hours.

For more details about the program, please see this press release.

To express interest in contact tracing jobs, please fill out this form. Please note that this form is not a job application.

IDPH Contact Tracing Interest Form

CCDPH anticipates starting our first group of contact tracers by early August. Contact tracers will be brought on in groups of 50-100. CCDPH will have a full team by the fall.