One call at a time from Southern California to Tennessee, the contact tracers are trying to build confidence in America's public health system. The contact tracers make cold calls from lists provided by local health departments of people who were reportedly within six feet (1.8 meters) of an infected person for more than 15 minutes. Then some contact tracers act as community health workers by visiting the people to check on them and offering help with paying rent, applications for unemployment benefits and food deliveries. Elsewhere around the U.S., Nashville has hired contact tracers fluent in Bengali and Nepali, and Ventura County near Los Angeles is recruiting people who speak Mexico's indigenous Mixtec language. San Diego State University contact tracer, Veronica Pelayo, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.

Source: ABC News October 31, 2020 14:26 UTC