Paid professional opportunity for New Paltz students: Join the state effort to curb the spread of COVID-19

The New York State Department of Health is leading a new contact tracing initiative to help reduce the spread of coronavirus, and it’s looking to hire thousands of paid staff across the state to support this effort.

“The aim of this initiative will be to call every person diagnosed with COVID-19, establish all contacts of this person, and proceed to call and maintain ongoing communication with every contact,” the Department of Health said in an email to SUNY partners. “This contact tracing initiative is in tandem with statewide-wide efforts to increase testing, improve communication and knowledge of effective strategies to reduce transmission, and implementation of isolation and quarantine. This will fortify efforts to control the pandemic in NYS.”

New York State plans to hire a team of between 6,400 and 17,000 staff statewide, to immediately fill the following roles:

• Contact Tracers: Reach out to the contacts of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 to assess symptoms, ensure compliance with quarantine and determine social support needs.
• Team Supervisors: Lead a team of 20 Contact Tracers and one Community Support Specialist who are working remotely using digital tools.
• Community Support Specialists: Work with the team and the local health departments to address the physical/mental health and social/human service needs of those contacted, especially those who are under isolation or quarantine.

Click here if you or someone you know in New York State is interested in applying to be a part of the Contact Tracing team.

To be considered, candidates must be a New York State resident 18 years of age or older; meet the position description requirement; go through an interview process; and complete a training and certification program.

New hires will support the Department of Health and local health departments to support contact tracing. The effort to recruit, interview, build and train the new team will be supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Vital Strategies: Resolve to Save Lives and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

SUNY New Paltz students with questions about this opportunity are encouraged to contact the Career Resource Center at careers@newpaltz.edu.