HONOLULU – With the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases throughout Hawaii, the University of Hawaii-state Department of Health (UH-DOH) Contact Tracing Training Program is seeking additional applicants with clinical healthcare backgrounds and an undergraduate degree who are available to be activated by DOH as full-time contact tracers for up to three months in the near future.

A smaller number of applicants able to serve part-time (at least 20 hours per week) will be considered.

These contact tracers will provide the supplemental workforce capacity to identify and facilitate isolating individuals who are sick or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

“Given the state’s reopening and rise in COVID-19 cases, our partnership will serve DOH and the people of Hawaii by providing the needed contact tracing training programs,” said Aimee Grace, UH program lead and director of the UHealthy Hawaii Initiative.

“We are now specifically seeking clinical healthcare professionals who are available to be activated by DOH full-time as contact tracers.”

The UH-DOH program has reopened registration for Track 1: Contact Tracing Training for Clinical Healthcare Professional to meet this urgent need.

The free, accelerated, one-and-a-half-day online training course is open to registered nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, pharmacists, physicians, physician assistants, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics.

While UH is providing the contact tracing training as part of the partnership, DOH will activate and manage any needed contact tracers.

Once training has been completed, the contact tracers will be activated as needed for a short-term period of up to three months.

Track 1 training for clinical healthcare professionals is being administered by UH Manoa’s School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene (SONDH) and has been developed jointly with DOH.

Track 1 Program Lead Kristine Qureshi said, “The SONDH has an extraordinary team of individuals who are able, willing and ready to respond to the demand of training the number of contact tracers who are needed to support our state during this challenging time.”

Registration is ongoing for two other training arms that are also part of the UH-DOH program:

Track 2: Community Contact Tracer Training – A six-week training program for those with undergraduate degrees (but who do not have clinical backgrounds) and are available for full-time activation by DOH after program completion.?

Community Health Worker Training – Requires a high school degree or GED.

For more information, e-mail oshi@hawaii.edu.