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ADH expands lab and contact-tracing capacity; seeks contractor to manage statewide tracing
Summary
The Arkansas Department of Health told lawmakers it is ramping PCR testing capacity, training volunteer contact tracers and planning a contract to manage tracing after receiving 28 RFQ responses, with a goal of a sustainable tracing contractor by early July.
Jennifer Dillehay, state epidemiologist at the Arkansas Department of Health, briefed the committee on case counts, testing capacity and contact-tracing plans.
Dillehay said Arkansas had "close to 5,000 active cases in Arkansas, 4880 as of yesterday." She reported 244 people in hospital and 62 on ventilators at that time and said Northwest and Southwest Arkansas showed increasing community transmission, disproportionately affecting Latino and Pacific Islander communities. Dillehay said ADH's lab capacity had expanded with PerkinElmer instrumentation (about 1,000 PCR tests per instrument) and that a second unit was expected to double that throughput for the department.
On contact tracing, Dillehay said ADH had about 100 nurses conducting case investigations and about 100 contact tracers but that the capacity was insufficient. ADH released a request for qualifications on June 19, received 28 responses and planned to interview top candidates with the goal of issuing a contract by July 1 to manage and scale tracing beyond volunteer teams.
Dillehay also described outreach efforts to Marshallese and Latino communities in Northwest Arkansas that include language-concordant teams, consulate coordination and CDC support for focus groups to improve messaging and reduce barriers to testing and isolation.
What's next: ADH is scaling lab throughput and expects to transition contact-tracing management from a volunteer-driven supplement to a contracted, sustainable operation intended to increase timeliness and coverage.
