BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — As part of our Rebound Kern County series, 23ABC spoke to Dr. Charles on Friday about the new infectious disease contact tracing program offered at Bakersfield College.
The new program offered to Bakersfield College students and community members, will teach individuals how to be a contact tracer for COVID-19.
Contact Tracers will conduct phone calls to newly diagnosed patients, conduct a follow up phone calls to patients, provide information on testing and assess patient's needs related to COVID-19.
Students will be required to complete the online one week program, turn in assignments and pass a few exams.
Then Bakersfield College will connect students to open COVID-19 contact tracer job opportunities. If students land a job they can apply for contact tracer positions with starting pay ranges between $17 to $32 an hour.
The training will count as one college credit for Bakersfield College students as well.
This program is also aimed towards helping provide jobs to those who have been laid off due to COVID-19.
According to Dr. Charles, contact tracing is one of the interventions that has been used successfully to control recent pandemics (Ebola, SARS), and has shown to be affective against COVID-19 relief in many countries including the U.S.
The training for this job will be offered from September 28 to October 2. There is still time to enroll and Dr. Charles said if there is a demand for the job they will also offer another training session.
For registration information you can contact 661-395-4667 or 661-395-4421.
