Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday the launch of a public awareness campaign for the state's COVID-19 case investigation program.
The state launched a partnership with UCSF and UCLA earlier this month to begin training thousands of COVID-19 contact tracers in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.
The "California Connected" public awareness campaign will include radio and social media ads, billboards and videos in multiple languages. It's intended to get state residents to "answer the call" when their local public health department reaches out to recruit them as a contact tracer, according to Newsom.
"That simple action of answering the call could save lives and help keep our families and communities healthy," Newsom said.
The governor has said the state hopes to train roughly 20,000 contact tracers by the first week of July through the partnership program and disperse them throughout all 58 counties. The state has received some $5.1 million in private financial support to spur the campaign and reach the 20,000-tracer goal.
The state's 61 public health departments have roughly 3,000 contact tracers already in the field, according to Newsom. More than 500 have already been trained through the state's program as well, with another 300 scheduled to soon complete the 20-hour course.
— Bay City News