CDC-Funded Training for the COVID-19 Contact Tracing Workforce

Background

Contact tracing is a key strategy to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Contact tracing 

in the United States requires states, tribes, localities, and territories to recruit, hire, and train 

adequate levels of case investigators and contact tracers. Successful case investigation and 

contact tracing for COVID-19 depends on a robust and well-trained public health workforce, 

with staff who have excellent and tactful interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity, and language 

and interviewing skills that help them to build and maintain trust with clients and contacts. 

The CDC COVID-19 Response and the CDC Division of STD Prevention are supporting two cooperative agreements to 

train the COVID-19 contact tracing workforce. The newly funded National Network Disease Intervention Training Centers 

(NNDITC) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) in partnership with the National Coalition 

of STD Directors (NCSD) are leading a nationwide, coordinated training effort to build a well-trained public health 

COVID-19 contact tracing workforce, including case investigators, contact tracers, and contact tracing supervisors. 

Knowledge-Based Training 

ASTHO and NCSD are collaborating with CDC and NNDITC to expand existing training and 

develop new knowledge-based COVID-19 contact tracing trainings. ASTHO is a national 

nonprofit organization representing public health agencies in the United States and 

over 100,000 public health professionals. NCSD is a national public health membership 

organization representing health department STD directors, their support staff, and 

community-based partners across 50 states, seven large cities, and eight U.S. territories.

These trainings are available online. The trainings incorporate a variety of learning approaches including 

online instructional modules, recorded videos of sample interviews with cases and contacts, and other interactive 

online components. 

The initial goals of the partnership are to: 

1. Expand the existing ASTHO training, Making Contact: A Training for COVID-19 Contact Tracers. 

2. Develop additional modules to build the knowledge about COVID-19 that case investigators and contact tracers need. 

3. Develop a training course for contact tracing supervisors. 

CS 317984-A 07/13/2020

cdc.gov/coronavirus
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Skills-Based Training 

Once contact tracers and case investigators 

complete online knowledge-based 

training, they need additional skills to be 

effective. CDC is partnering with NNDITC 

to scale up virtual skills-based training for 

contact tracers, case investigators, and 

their managers. This instructor-led training 

will be delivered virtually. The NNDITCs 

have a long history of training Disease 

Intervention Specialists, the key workforce 

in health departments who investigate 

infectious disease outbreaks, including STDs, 

HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and any emerging 

infectious disease threats.

NNDITC comprises a national skills-based curricula development and coordination center — the University of California, 

San Francisco (UCSF) Disease Intervention Training Centers (DITC) — and four regional centers that will provide the 

virtual skills-based interactive trainings: 

Region 1: Health NY DITC in Albany, New York

Region 2: Health Care Education and Training (HCET) DITC in Indianapolis, Indiana

Region 3: Denver Public Health DITC in Denver, Colorado

Region 4: UCSF DITC in San Francisco, California 

Curriculum Development Center in San Francisco, California

The partnership is aimed at training three initial COVID-19 cohorts:

• State and local health department staff 

• Individuals hired as part of the CDC Foundation COVID-19 Corps

• CDC’s Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) trainees 

These trainees will continue to be supported through necessary on-the-job trainings, such as mentorship programs 

and virtual learning collaboratives, offered by the NNDITC to hone the trainees’ skills while they are working at a 

health department.

Impact 

The trainings planned by the NNDITC, ASTHO, and NCSD will enhance the knowledge and skills 

of the contact tracing workers essential to the COVID-19 pandemic response in the United States. 

Specifically, the trainings will 1) ensure that U.S. contact tracers have a standard set of skills and 

knowledge needed to do their jobs well, 2) bolster health departments’ ability to work across 

jurisdictions to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the United States, and 3) build a highly proficient public health 

workforce that can reduce the spread of other current and future health threats. These cooperative agreements 

contribute to the national COVID-19 response while sustainably strengthening the public health workforce for the future. 

Additional Information

To access the knowledge-based training from ASTHO, please visit TRAIN: https://www.train.org/main/

course/1091302/compilation

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