Gov. announces $43M program to fight coronavirus, skirts question about unemployment
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The state health department on Wednesday announced plans to begin a $43 million contact tracing program to fight the coronavirus in Indiana. But there’s also uncertainty for workers, with some worried they will have to choose between their family and their job.
Gov. Eric Holcomb was still refusing all efforts during his daily press briefing on Wednesday to provide a preview of what his announcement will be on Friday when the stay-at-home order expires, but a few key pieces seem to be falling into place.
“I’m not going to release the timeline today or tomorrow by the way,” Gov. Holcomb said.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box announced the state is finalizing details for a contract with a company called Maximus to staff 500 positions to conduct contact tracing when Hoosiers test positive for COVID-19.
The program will allow Maximus employees to contact Hoosiers who test positive via text or email. The individuals will be asked to call them back, an effort that will hopefully limit the individuals from thinking they are receiving a spam message. After four hours, the call center employees will begin calling the individuals if they don’t respond.
It’s a time-consuming process. It will take about an hour per person to figure out who they’ve been in close contact with, usually involving an average of 10 people per case. Officials are careful to point out that employees involved with the contact tracing will never ask for social security numbers or any financial information.
Each individual identified through the tracing will be asked to isolate for 14 days, though a test won’t be issued unless symptoms start appearing.
Dr. Box said the tracing program will take the burden off local health departments. The annual cost is estimated at $43 million and the program isn’t set to begin until May 11.
“An important requirement for us to be able to open back up in our state is that we must be able to test individuals quickly and isolate them if they’re positive,” said Dr. Box.
In Iowa, where restrictions are loosening on Friday, state officials say people who don’t go back to work when asked by their employer will be considered to have quit voluntarily and lose their unemployment benefits. Even if they don’t feel it’s safe, valid excuses are limited to things like being sick with coronavirus or not having child care available.
When Gov. Holcomb was asked if Indiana would do the same thing, he skirted the question, instead focusing on the demand for high-wage jobs he believes will still be there once the state gets restarted.
Indiana Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Fred Payne said the focus right now is getting benefits out to those who qualify. There will be webinars for both employers and employees explaining requirements.
“Once individuals are asked to return to work, legislatively, they are required to return to work. Based on the CARES Act, the benefits laid out during the CARES Act, those benefits are available when an employee is unable to work due to COVID-19 and that employer not having available work for them,” Payne said.
More answers on the topic are promised for Thursday.
The state also announced Wednesday it has bought a specialized decontamination system for hospitals and health care offices throughout the state.
Hopefully starting next week, the hospitals will be able to send in their N95 masks to a central location where they will be cleaned and returned. That can be repeated up to 20 times before they get tossed, vastly cutting down the demand for new masks.