Under the leadership of Gov. Charlie Baker, a collaboration between the Department of Public Health and the global organization, Partners in Health, was created to stop silent and community spread of COVID-19.
NEW Health will lead efforts in Charlestown to find every close contact of a person with COVID-19, test every contact found to have symptoms and support every case and contact to safely isolate/quarantine for 14 days.
A case is a COVID-19 patient with a positive result performed by the CDC, MA State Public Health Lab, MGH Lab, Quest Diagnostics and any other approved clinical and commercial labs. A contact is any person who has been exposed to a suspect, probable, or confirmed case of COVID-19 and has been within six feet of a COVID-19 patient for a prolonged period of time. A close contact also could have had direct contact with infectious secretions of a COVID-19 case such as being coughed on.
Partners in Health has hired and trained professional staff from NEW Health to conduct the calls and interviews. They are all proficient in many languages and can assist in helping contacts access testing sites and care.
For more information, please contact Luisa Siniscalchi, Case Investigator at 857-238-1176. If we are going to contain this pandemic, we need everyone who is called to cooperate. Let’s work as a community in unity to end this disease!