Tag: contact tracing

Study in Chinese City Finds Children Spread COVID-19 Easier and Lockdowns Worked

sarah JonasResearch Results

Using high quality COVID-19 data from a northern Chinese city, two UAlbany researchers concluded that young people were most responsible for an increase in direct and secondary infections, and also determined that county-wide lockdowns proved effective in stemming the spread of the virus.

George Washington University Public Health/Medical Experts Available for Media Interviews on the COVID-19 Pandemic

sarah JonasExpert Pitch

Public health experts predict the United States may be headed for thousands of new COVID-19 cases and deaths this winter, a surge that is already straining health care systems around the country. The George Washington University has the following experts…

UC San Diego Bolsters Aggressive Return to Learn Plan to Prevent Outbreaks on Campus

sarah JonasResearch Results

UC San Diego’s nationally recognized, evidence-based Return to Learn program employs a comprehensive suite of education, monitoring, testing, intervention and notification tools that no other university is using. And the program continues to expand—including a recent introduction of weekly self-administered student testing kits, growth of the campus’s wastewater viral monitoring program and widespread use of the cellphone-based CA COVID Notify exposure notification system.

Testing Wastewater for COVID-19

sarah JonasFeature Expert

UNLV researcher Edwin Oh and colleagues have implemented wastewater surveillance programs to screen samples for the presence of COVID-19 and to extract the RNA from the SARS-COV-2 virus to find targets that make vaccines more effective.

Arizona State University releases first comprehensive survey on how companies are protecting their employees from COVID-19

sarah JonasResearch Results

A new global business survey conducted by the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University (ASU) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, finds that less than 20% of employers report testing their workers for COVID-19, and 35% have permanently reduced their workforce. The survey, which was completed by 1,125 employers from 29 countries with the majority over a period of six weeks, September to October, found that for companies with employees onsite at the workplace, many are taking some steps to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. Nearly three-fourths (74%) of these companies report they require masks for their employees, and nearly 80% make masks and hand sanitizer available.

Rush University Medical Center Surpasses 100,000 COVID-19 Tests

sarah JonasFeature

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Rush University Medical Center has been a leader in the Chicago area in developing, expanding and evolving testing efforts. On Friday, Nov. 13, the Medical Center performed its 100,000th test for COVID-19.

Chicago Center for HIV Elimination awarded $5 million for community COVID-19 testing and prevention

sarah JonasAnnouncement

The Chicago Center for HIV Elimination, housed at the University of Chicago, has been awarded $5 million over two years through the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) RADx Underserved Populations program to support a COVID-19 testing project to engage two disenfranchised populations.

UC Campuses Pilot Google-Apple Notification Technology to Help Prevent COVID-19 Outbreaks

sarah JonasAnnouncement

Today, California approved a new voluntary pilot program that uses Apple and Google smartphone technology to help rapidly control COVID-19 outbreaks. The program will launch on the campus of UC San Diego for any students and employees who opt in.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Offers New Online Course for Public Health Program Managers and Developers on Maximizing Effectiveness of COVID-19 Contact Tracing

sarah JonasAnnouncement

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the country, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with Bloomberg Philanthropies, today announced a free new online course to help public health officials implement strong contact tracing programs to break the chain of novel coronavirus transmission.

Using your phone’s microphone to track possible COVID-19 exposure

sarah JonasFeature

Signals sent and received from cell phone microphones and speakers could help warn people when they have been near someone who has contracted COVID-19, researchers say.
In a new paper, researchers described a system that would generate random, anonymous IDs for each phone, automatically send ultrasonic signals between microphones and speakers of phones within a certain radius, and use the information exchanged through this acoustic channel for contact tracing.

Chicago Cubs player Jason Heyward supports COVID-19 response for UChicago Medicine healthcare workers and South Side community

sarah JonasAnnouncement

Chicago Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward is donating $100,000 to University of Chicago Medicine to help alleviate hardships experienced by frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and expand contact tracing efforts on Chicago’s South Side.

Asymptomatic Testing Central to UC San Diego’s Return to Learn for Fall Quarter

sarah JonasAnnouncement

The University of California San Diego today announced the next step in its Return to Learn program, which will guide an incremental repopulation of the campus while offering broad, asymptomatic testing for faculty, staff and students on a recurring basis to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

FAU Now Offers COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Risk-Reduction Public Health Certificate

sarah JonasFeature

In response to the high demand for one of the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S., FAU has launched a new, online public health certificate course on COVID-19, contact tracing and risk-reduction. The five-week, 15-hour course does not require a college degree and is scheduled from June 29 to Aug. 7. The program is open to the general public for adults age 18 and older with a high school diploma or equivalent and a variety of work experiences and educational backgrounds.

UW launches online training for contact tracing to help fight COVID-19

sarah JonasAnnouncement

To provide training for the expanding workforce of contact tracers, the University of Washington’s Northwest Center for Public Health Practice created the free, online course Every Contact Counts to support public health agencies — including smaller, rural public health districts and tribal health departments — to help their existing and growing workforce in the art and science of conducting a contact-tracing interview.

Billions of people could be invisible in COVID-19 contract tracing efforts utilizing smartphone apps

sarah JonasExpert Pitch

A West Virginia University consumer law expert says recent announcements by Apple and Google that they’re developing a system to enable widespread contact tracing in an effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic raises significant questions beyond whether such a plan…

A New Way to Accurately Estimate COVID-19 Death Toll

sarah JonasResearch Results

A Rutgers engineer has created a mathematical model that accurately estimates the death toll linked to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and could be used around the world. The model, detailed in a study published in the journal Mathematics, predicted the death toll would eventually reach about 68,120 in the United States as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That’s based on data available on April 28, and there was high confidence (99 percent) the expected death toll would be between 66,055 and 70,304.