Photo By Staff Sgt. Ryan Getsie | Senior Airman Bryan Reyes with Task Force Med processes sample collections at the...... read more read more
LAS VEGAS – Nevada Army Guard Soldiers have been in the fight against the coronavirus since they were activated back in early March. Outside of the public eye, they have been working alongside Southern Nevada Health District officials as investigators to help prevent further outbreaks of COVID-19 in hard hit southern Nevada.
Roughly sixteen Nevada Guard Soldiers work daily in cooperation with the SNHD as investigators. (In some organizations, their job might be described as contact tracers.) Each day, the Soldiers contact newly diagnosed patients and gather information on where each individual recently traveled and with whom they contacted.
The information the Soldiers gather is crucial to officials aiming to curb the already widespread coronavirus. With this information, health district specialists can predict future outbreaks and “hot spots” in certain communities and neighborhoods.
The COVID-19 cases in Clark County are alarming. According to SNHD reports, there have been 38, 534 coronavirus cases and 625 deaths in Clark County as of July 28. On July 17 the district reported 625 new hospitalizations: the largest single-day increase since the outbreak in early March. In the last seven days they reported 6,234 new cases.
Victoria Hughes, a senior SNHD disease investigator and intervention specialist, has the difficult job of analyzing where the coronavirus has been and where it’s headed.
“We have to have people who are honest about who they’ve been in contact with and who lives in their home,” Hughes said. “Everyone has to follow quarantine and isolation guidelines – that’s really the only way to keep the disease at bay.”
Sgt. Jacob Grigor, a Las Vegas resident, was called to active duty in response to COVID-19 April 1. He just joined the contact tracer team late June.
“I’m learning a lot. I’m developing a deeper understanding of this virus, the transmission process, and just how easily someone can be exposed.” Grigor said.
Training to become an investigator usually takes about three weeks, but Nevada Guard Soldiers had only three days to prepare before they were contacting positive cases.
The investigator will only contact the positive cases. They will ask that person for information of the people they’ve been in contact with so they can be notified of exposure. Once this information is entered into the system, it will be managed by a third party in order to contact the affected people.
The Nevada Guard investigators are currently helping track about 6,234 active cases in southern Nevada.
Devin Raman, the senior disease investigator for the SNHD, said it is inevitable more investigators will be required.
“It’s a numbers game,” Raman said. “Even with the Nevada Guard’s help, we have only about 50 people I can assign cases to.”
“There’s no way they can get through the 3,500 cases we have now. And tomorrow it can be up to 4,000.” She said while discussing caseloads at the beginning of July.
Raman said people should not be suspicious if they receive a call from an investigator.
“We’re not trying to invade anyone’s privacy,” Raman said. “We’re just trying to prevent the further spread of the disease and prevent people from dying. We really want people to take this seriously and limit their exposure. People need to think about how the coronavirus affects the entire community. If everyone works together to limit the spread and limit their exposure, then we can get a handle on it.”
Spc. Quinton Ivory has been in the Nevada Guard since 2014. He worked at the Cashman site assisting displaced people early on during the COVID-19 response before transitioning to his new role as an investigator.
“This is the most I’ve done in the Guard in my six years. It’s a life changing experience.” Ivory said. “ Not a lot of Guardsmen can say they’ve been activated, put on orders, and helped the community they actually live in. This really defines what the Guard is!”
| Date Taken: | 07.28.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.29.2020 17:57 |
| Story ID: | 374778 |
| Location: | LAS VEGAS, NV, US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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