Meanwhile, the cityâs current contact tracing efforts are also focused on those types of facilities. But he said he also has interviewed restaurant staff who appear to have contracted the disease at work, which he suspects is the result of working in bustling spaces like kitchens. “The location of an outbreak is more difficult to identify than the location of an exposure,” Pritzker said. CONTRACE has been featured extensively in the press - we are available to comment on the Covid-19 contact tracing ecosystem, including the culture wars, politicization and public perception challenges currently affecting contact tracing. Pritzker discussed bars and restaurants when announcing the new database, making a case that the exposure data was a better guide than outbreak data for these businesses. That web of connections typically consists of roughly 10 people, most of whom havenât even been around the original patient. The information, kept by the Illinois Department of Public Health, is updated each Friday. Contact tracing is one key element to reducing the spread of the novel coronavirus. Sign up for the Watson, at Johns Hopkins, said Pritzker’s decision was warranted. Watson said disease can spread at schools, but added that deciding whether to keep them open should be a much higher priority than making a call about bars. Some educators say students not equipped for remote learning could be falling further behind. Despite the Chicago health center’s efforts, Garcia said some people refuse to get tested or to isolate. “And so I completely agree with the policy decision to shut down those locations, especially in the midst of a very severe surge of cases.”. The internship was created with the coordination of Austin Baidas, ‘92, a Chicago native himself who is also treasurer of Howard Brown Health, and Dr. Brad Rabquer, Wilson Institute director … {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, A timeline of how Illinois registered sex offender database was created, Watch now: Accessibility through another's eyes, Watch now: The Midwest battles a viral enemy, Watch now: Charleston schools assistant superintendent on COVID changes. It’s more likely, he said — and in keeping with what he has gleaned from interviews — that people are getting the virus from their own dining companions. Those cases cannot be linked to another source of infection. Though local and state officials have said that process is key to slowing the pandemic and reopening the state, a large-scale initiative hasnât been announced to address the daunting task of tracking down every person who has come into contact with the growing number of COVID-19 patients. https://serve.castfire.com/audio/3755601/3755601_2020-05-04-225301.64kmono.mp3. San Francisco has also been scaling up its contact tracing workforce. Decisions and criteria governing the employment relationship with all employees at Howard Brown are made in a non-discriminatory manner, without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national … The most recent data, for the week ending July 11, listed more than 1,500 exposures at schools, broken down by age group, with the bulk of cases in students ages 18 to 22. The county was employing 29 contact tracers as of April 16, including four dedicated to congregate settings like nursing homes and the Cook County Jail. Police reported 716 murders through the end of November, a 54% increase from the 464 murders during the same time last year. ... Now it kind of makes sense to try to limit any activities because of the way cases are going. And he maintained that stopping indoor dining with strict COVID-19 protocols would only push people into unregulated private gatherings where people would be less safe. He cited bars and restaurants as the biggest location for exposures other than the catchall category of “other,” which included things like vacations, family gatherings, weddings and college parties. You can cancel at any time. Howard Brown’s efforts appear to be unique, because contact tracing is normally something public health departments do. “They all know how they got it. I would say no.”, Northwestern University’s Gerardin, who was one of the authors of the Nature study on limiting capacities, said the number of exposures found at restaurants is “a warning. “That’s a decision that has to be made by the leaders,” she added. For example, the state is getting only rudimentary contact-tracing information from Schneider’s work at Howard Brown at this point because of the limitations of Chicago’s own database, Schneider said. About 2â3 of those contacts end up testing positive. “I think contact tracing and case investigation are really important in understanding where people are getting the virus,” Watson said. For example, the state is getting only rudimentary contact-tracing information from Schneider’s work at Howard Brown at this point because of the limitations of Chicago’s own database, Schneider said. “Where there are clusters of cases (or) large transmission events (that can help) inform decisions by public health agencies about where to allocate resources and what policies to put in place to reduce transmission.”. Jordan Abudayyeh, Pritzker’s press secretary, said in response to Tribune questions that Pritzker’s decisions are guided by both contact tracing data and scientific studies. The period of time he cited covered Aug. 1 through Sept. 29, not the most recent available statistics. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. That data includes this caveat: “Locations provided by cases should be interpreted as locations where COVID-19 exposure may have occurred, not that these are definitive exposure or outbreak locations.”. the company says in its job postings, which advertise pay of $17-22 an hour. By comparison, factories and manufacturers were at the top of the list, with 69 locations across the state reporting outbreaks. Dr. Howard Markel, director of the Center for the History of Medicine at … But the restaurant industry disputes Pritzker’s conclusion, underscoring that relatively few outbreaks have been linked to restaurants and that exposures don’t necessarily mean the identified location is the source of virus transmission. Our staff is dedicated to helping you live your best life. Facing a deadly virus that can spread insidiously to carriers who donât show symptoms, contact tracers must move swiftly to interrupt the chain of infection. The data also shows that contact tracers reached out to 73% of the 268,572 people who were identified through case investigation as having prolonged, close contact with infected people. Restaurant owners struggling to save their businesses from COVID-19-related financial collapse said the data didn’t prove restaurants were dangerous. There are limitations. then {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}} per month. Schneider believes the state has been slow to launch a larger effort and holds that getting a contact tracing system in place is vital for responding to the current outbreak and a possible resurgence in a few months. How AI can and is helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. We follow the stories and update you as they develop. Although Pritzker pointed to exposure data, along with the CDC study, to defend his shutdown of indoor dining, he downplayed the relatively large number of potential exposures related to schools. His clinic has been doing contact tracing on sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis and HIV for years, so taking on tracing for COVID-19 was a natural step as the health center was already conducting screenings. Suggest a Correction. Dr. John Schneider, an infectious disease specialist and Howard Brown Health 55th Street Medical Director, joins Anna to explain how Howard Brown has been using contact tracing to fight the spread of COVID-19. "Weâre asking and demanding that we have a sense of trust by allowing us to be considered to be first when it comes to distribution," said Pastor John Harrell, of Proviso Baptist Church in Maywood. A look at how the Bears split up playing time among tight ends, wide receivers and players who saw their role reduced coming out of the bye week. Munar recently spoke with Health News Illinois about how it adjusted its care model for COVID-19 and how it adapted its previous contact tracing work with HIV/AIDS to COVID-19. Illinois surpasses 12K coronavirus deaths, 700K cases, 9 more Chicago Police Department employees test positive for COVID-19, Coronavirus live blog, Dec. 1, 2020: Illinois logs most COVID-19 cases in weeks as state prepares for post-holiday spike, Coronavirus numbers rise, post-holiday spike looms â and Pritzker warns: âStay home. Press. âWe can help local and state agencies and nonprofits stand up contact tracing efforts, at scale, much more quickly and at a much, much lower cost than traditional recruiters.â. At the Howard Brown Health Center they have experience in contact tracing, as they already do it with people who test positive for sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and HIV and now they use this technique to help stop the spread of Covid-19. Public health leaders concede the system isn’t ready yet. We get you. Regardless of your ability to pay. Close Modal. Search job openings, see if they fit - company salaries, reviews, and more posted by Howard Brown employees. Gov. âI really think itâs about doing the best we can now, knowing itâs not going to be perfect,â he said. the contact tracing strategy and tactics that were successfully used in congregate settings to their work in community settings. Waters said the newly-minted company has not been contracted by any government agencies in Illinois. In all, case investigators — the workers who reach out to infected people in the first step of the contact tracing process — tried to contact 58% of the 383,709 people who contracted COVID-19 between Aug. 1 and Nov. 14. One of the students' primary duties is contact tracing of those diagnosed with COVID-19 in an effort to slow the pandemic that has hit Chicago’s underrepresented community especially hard. He also noted the high count of exposures at restaurants and bars and cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that showed people infected with coronavirus were about twice as likely to have dined at a restaurant in the two weeks before diagnosis than those who were not infected with the virus. Contact tracing in Illinois may not slow the coronavirus much. “I don’t think schools are exempt from clusters of transmission, but it is a priority decision.”, When Terry Parke, a state representative from Pittsfield, the chief sponsor of the Habitual Child Sex Offender Registration Act, discusses his…. Howard Brown is a multi-site operation based in Chicago and includes a main health and research center in Uptown, as well as clinics in Lakeview, Rogers Park, Englewood, Hyde Park, Back of the Yards, Humboldt Park, and Edgewater, as well as the Broadway Youth Center and three Brown Elephant resale shops in … Since the start of the pandemic, Dr. John Schneider has interviewed more than 100 people with COVID-19, and in nearly all cases he managed to pin down how they got infected. Other data posted includes school outbreaks, or specific schools that reported five or more cases from different households “who may have shared exposure on school grounds” — whether during class hours or before- and after-school activities — during the previous 30 days. Separate data from Chicago Public Schools, meanwhile, shows case numbers among adults going to CPS locations soared in the month before Nov. 14. The Midwest LGBTQ Health Symposium (MLHS), presented by Howard Brown Health's Center for Education, Research and Advocacy, brings together healthcare professionals, educators, researchers, and advocates from across the country to disseminate evidence-based practices and engage in rigorous discussion around issues relating to the health of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, … J.B. Pritzker told reporters on Tuesday that state officials were still trying to âspin upâ a system, which he said is âa very large endeavorâ that requires both hiring and technology. Decisions about whether to keep schools open, like those surrounding restaurants, are some of the most controversial the governor must make. The state first posted some contact tracing data on Nov. 6, showing what percentage of infected people case investigators tried to reach and the percentage they actually did reach, broken down by regions of the state and also its 97 public health departments. Friday, May 01, 2020 Chicago Tribune by … A remote hearing due to the coronavirus pandemic means the four will not be forced to stroll past what likely would have been a horde of reporters and cameras at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. 37 Howard Brown jobs in Chicago, IL. According to Schneider, it can actually be useful to have multiple tracers reaching out to a single person. The posted data includes information on outbreak locations, or places at which five or more infected people from different households had been within a 14-day period. Experts on contact tracing say that using contact tracing data in this way is valid and part of the reason contact tracing is done in the first place, particularly when cases are surging. As bad as the Bears looked against the Packers, their schedule provides plenty of opportunity for a strong finish. Officials havenât said how many people will be needed to ramp up contact tracing statewide. In many areas of the state, parent coalitions are fighting to keep schools open or open them up, while many teachers unions contend it’s safer to conduct remote learning. In recent days, a Washington, D.C.-based recruitment firm that launched just a week ago has started hiring contact tracers in Chicago and other major cities. Also listed are potential exposure locations, or places infected people said they were in the 14 days before experiencing symptoms or receiving positive test results. The mayor "should stay the hell out of running the police department and let Supt. Burned by toxic relationships in the past, reader looks for reasons to distrust partner â and is doing it to someone right now. The contact tracing is giving you red flags that are telling you where to look, and then you should follow up to figure out is it truly a risky place or just a coincidence? The lowest interview rates were in Chicago, which was at 18%, and Cook County, with only 12% of infected people interviewed. Rolling out contact tracing in Illinois a daunting task, but essential, expert says, Black, Brown communities should get first dibs on coronavirus vaccine, minority leaders say. Contact tracing in Illinois may not slow the coronavirus much. When Pritzker announced the release of the data on Nov. 6, he was under some political fire for shutting down indoor dining a week earlier. But officials admit that’s not happening in suburban Cook County, for example. As positivity rates around the state grew, school districts have amended their learning plans to keep students and teachers safe.”. The top five outbreak locations since July 1 — when Pritzker lifted many early pandemic restrictions — were factories, group homes, community events, correctional facilities and colleges. But the data is helping guide state decisions. As a result, investigators from both departments sometimes collect the same information, which is then routed to a statewide system state officials use to track cases. Their next four opponents rank in the bottom 10 in total defense and points allowed. 1st-and-10: Bears housecleaning is no sure thing. Sometimes, despite Schneider’s experience on the South Side, it’s hard to pin down where and how a person was infected, making it difficult to identify outbreaks. In the end, they talked to 62% of the contacts, the data indicates. “I’d also note that we only have about 169,000 students in full in-person instruction. “I think there’s one person I’ve had who said, ‘I don’t know how I got it,’” said Schneider, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with the University of Chicago who is director of the 55th Street Howard Brown Clinic, where he also does case investigations and contact tracing. But the data is helping guide state decisions. HNI: How has Howard Brown been adapting its care model to meet the needs of underserved communities during the COVID-19 pandemic? Never underestimate the mediocrity of the NFL. “These are difficult decisions that policymakers have to make — I get it,” he said. In the past 30 days, the top five were group homes, child day cares, factories, correctional facilities and retail locations. For example, the state is getting only rudimentary contact-tracing information from Schneider’s work at Howard Brown at this point because of the limitations of … And Illinois Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike alluded to a large-scale deployment of contact tracers in an interview last week with the New Yorker, saying thousands would likely be needed across the state. By Tom Schuba Apr 29, 2020, 7:45pm CDT Roughly a quarter of the coronavirus tests conducted at the Howard Brown Health clinic in Hyde Park have been coming back positive, amounting to about 20 new confirmed cases a day. Howard Brown is a network of doctors’ offices embedded in … What comes next is the arduous task of tracking down every person that patient may have encountered, a time-tested public health practice known commonly as contact tracing. Dr. John Schneider, a University of Chicago faculty member who serves as the Howard Brown clinicâs medical director, explained that a single staff member requires around a full day to call an infected personâs entire chain of direct and indirect contacts. Apply to Contact Tracer, Contract Manager, Chicago Covid Contract Tracer and more! “But everyone else is like, ‘Oh yeah, so-and-so and so-and-so is sick now too.’ Or ‘so-and-so got tested and they were positive too,’” Schneider continued. Pritzker says coronavirus contact tracing is a key to reopening Illinois. Aligned with the Stat piece, Dr. Anu Hazra, who oversees contract tracing with Howard Brown Health, said outbreaks took hold with employees. 40 Covid-19 Tracer jobs available in Illinois on Indeed.com. This includes at-home HIV/STI testing and telehealth visits with providers and health educators. From pediatrics to geriatrics, we deliver expert care to the LGBTQ community and its allies. The governor singled out the data, along with scholarly studies, when defending his late October decision to shut down indoor dining. There were 2,107 potential exposures identified at bars and restaurants, behind schools with 3,718 potential exposures; hospitals and clinics with 2,384; and retail locations with 2,290. The Contact Tracing Coordinator will assist ongoing efforts by Howard Brown Health (HBH), the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), and the Illinois… Hiring Organization / Company: Howard Brown Health Center “We get all that.”. Howard Brown, which has decades of experience with contact tracing HIV and sexually transmitted infections, has been tracking COVID patients in Chicago since March. “While certain settings like a college campus, a factory or a group home may make it easier to determine an outbreak, most establishments that are frequented by the public like restaurants or grocery stores are not easily determined as the setting of an outbreak. For now, public health workers in Chicago and Cook County are already conducting limited contact tracing of COVID-19 patients. Please subscribe to keep reading. While roughly two-thirds of those contacts wind up testing positive, Schneider said close contacts living with an infected person are even more likely to come down with the disease. Howard Brown Health has launched new initiatives to provide HIV/STI services during the COVID-19 pandemic. “People are telling [tracers] they don’t want to get tested. You have permission to edit this article. The specific locations are not identified. In the surest sign yet that the Bearsâ head coach is out of answers, he called for players to "do more" and ripped into the defense that has kept him employed. “That doesn’t at all mean that school is where they contracted the disease originally, and remember that masks are required in school and are not intended to be removed for extended periods of time.”. Tracers also gather information on places visited by infected people — so-called exposure data — but whether those places are truly unsafe can be a matter of interpretation. “Exposure data is going to give you a sense of where you’re at the greatest risk for catching COVID-19 and particularly when we see community transmission as high as it is around the state.”. CDPH will apply the contact tracing strategy and tactics that were successfully used in congregate settings to their work in community settings. Schneider says the man did visit a barber shop, so they are checking to see if that might be the source. The state also posted separate data from Chicago showing that, of 1,090 infected people interviewed in the city who said they had been to public places in the 14 days before symptoms or a positive test, more than half reported visiting restaurants and more than 1 in 10 said they went to a bar, based on interviews conducted between July 15 and Sept. 15. âContact tracing is the largest US civilian mobilization since World War II,â the company says in its job postings, which advertise pay of $17-22 an hour. At Howard Brown Health we provide care that respects and values you, just as you are. Job Title: Manager Of Contact Tracing. At the top were group homes, with 16. âYou donât wanna be completely inefficient but some overlap is okay.â. But restaurants and bars, categorized together, were fourth on the latest list of exposure locations, based on data for the 30 days ending Nov. 13. https://healthnewsillinois.com/2020/04/24/on-the-record-with- 3,800 people shot in Chicago through end of November as violence spikes 50% from last year. When case levels are higher, “understanding where people have gotten infected is going to help us understand what are the risky places or risky activities that can inform what kind of response we want to do,” said Jaline Gerardin, assistant professor of preventive medicine at McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. The city and state databases are not collecting all the same information and aren’t yet fully communicating, officials confirmed. And he noted that eating at a restaurant required removing one’s mask while being in a place with others for extended periods of time. Know about breaking news as it happens. “I think there’s one person I’ve had who said, ‘I don’t know how I got it,’” said Schneider, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with the University of Chicago who is director of the 55th Street Howard Brown Clinic, where he also does case investigations and contact tracing. In addition to traditional community outreach, Chicago Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said Tuesday that an app rolled out by the city earlier this week to offer coronavirus-related assistance and allow Chicagoans to pre-register for a vaccine could ultimately be used for contact tracing. On Wednesday, 2,253 new cases were reported across Illinois as the total number of cases eclipsed 50,000. Nevertheless, Schneider was not critical of Pritzker for taking “a conservative approach” by stopping indoor dining. In Chicago, Howard Brown Health has been doing contact tracing from the start. “I think there’s one person I’ve had who said, ‘I don’t know how I got it,’” said Schneider, an infectious disease specialist affiliated with the University of Chicago who is director of the 55th Street Howard Brown Clinic, where he also does case investigations and contact tracing. Search job openings, see if they fit - company salaries, reviews, and more posted by Howard Brown employees. It takes about a day to trace the contacts of COVID-19 patients at the Howard Brown Health clinic in Hyde Park, its director says. “Federally qualified health centers can play a key role in supporting contact tracing of COVID-19,” said David Munar, president and CEO of Howard Brown … âThat kind of technology would be a total game-changer here,â Lightfoot said about similar technology being developed in Germany. The initial diagnosis is just the start of the staffâs work, though. Matt Nagy inches toward exit with âpersonal prideâ comment, rebuke of Bearsâ defense. “Anyone who goes into a school building regularly would have likely reported school as a place they went before they became a confirmed positive,” Pritzker said. “I think at the current rates we’re seeing right now, I definitely get it. Brown run it," said John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police. School opening and closing decisions also are fraught with other considerations. He maintained that lowering capacities, as suggested in a study by Northwestern and Stanford universities that was published in the journal Nature, would tamp down disease spread while allowing businesses to keep their heads above water. âThereâs definitely cases where weâve observed that if we had intervened a couple days earlier, we couldâve prevented transmission events,â said Schneider, whose team consists of 15 contact tracers and three âdata people.â. 37 Howard Brown jobs in Northbrook, IL. No credit card required. Edited excerpts are below. I think that’s pretty clear.”. Tommy Lee Jones is a hoot as his trust-no-one sidekick in the bonkers paranoia thriller. “Someone in their group has it, or had it, and was asymptomatic and didn’t know,” Schneider said. The mayorâs office called the comments "racist.". Sam Toia, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, also noted that factories are higher on the exposure list but weren’t shut down. And in Illinois, the data is far from complete, both because the state’s system for tracking the data is still developing and because some populous areas of the state aren’t even close to conducting contact tracing on every case. It initiated COVID-19 contact tracing starting with the first client with a positive test result who was diagnosed at the organization, on March 13, 2020. The most recent shooting wounded two 20-year-old men in the 500 block of North Pine Avenue on the West Side. For example, the state is getting only rudimentary contact-tracing information from Schneider’s work at Howard Brown at this point because of the limitations of … As of Nov. 13, it identified 15 school districts with outbreaks among students, staff or both. Rolling out contact tracing in Illinois a daunting task, but essential, expert says It takes about a day to trace the contacts of COVID-19 patients at the Howard Brown Health clinic in Hyde Park, its director says. Howard Brown Health is a federally qualified health center with 10 clinical locations across Chicago. Job Description: BABS in social services or related, OR more than 2 years professional experience in HIVSTI Prevention or related Public Health field. The most recent data, on tracing conducted since July 1, ranks bars ninth on the list of outbreak locations with 24 counted, while restaurants are 11th on the list with 22 outbreaks listed. Assume you were exposedâ, CDC to shorten COVID-19 quarantine to 10 days, 7 with test, Chicago expects to receive first 25K doses of coronavirus vaccine by end of December, 13 more employees at Cook County chief judgeâs office test positive for coronavirus, City shuts down 300-person party in Wicker Park, other businesses for âegregiouslyâ violating COVID-19 restrictions, Madigan confidant, others set for arraignment in bribery case Wednesday, Dear Abby: Every relationship gets ruined when I push the guy away, Lightfoot â not the top cop â is calling the shots at CPD, police union charges, âWanderâ: Aaron Eckhart makes a great conspiracy theorist, and he isnât acting alone, Snap judgment: TE Cole Kmet overtakes Jimmy Graham in Packers game. They actually talked to 45% of them. Contact tracing for COVID-19 has gotten off to a slow start in Illinois, with the state still short of its initial goal of 3,800 people doing that work. About 2⁄3 of those contacts end up testing positive. “In addition to the data they are looking at in Illinois, we have lots of other evidence from other states, other countries, to corroborate that indoor dining and bars and gyms ... are the kinds of environments where transmission happens much more readily,” Watson said. But the information gleaned by Schneider and other contact tracers is proving useful in another way: It is feeding a growing database that Gov. They got it from someone in their friendship, or in their household network, who got it from work or some other mechanism.”. “Schools are environments where masking and distancing guidelines are enforced compared to other indoor activities where the motive isn’t educating students safely, but instead profit,” Abudayyeh said in an email. To learn more, check out the following resources from Howard Brown Health: Telehealth Specimen Collection Kit The city and state databases are not collecting all the same information and aren’t yet fully communicating, officials confirmed. Apply to Contact Tracer, Covid Contract Tracer Supervisor, Intake Contact Tracer and more! And finally, the data also lists 730 schools outside the Chicago Public Schools system where potential exposures occurred in the 30 days before Nov. 13. Schneider, the physician and contact tracer, said he is skeptical that diners are being infected at restaurants by workers or by other people they don’t know, even though scientists suspect infectious aerosols could linger in enclosed spaces. And it’s not clear which local health departments are … Clinics like Howard Brown have been conducting their own contact tracing efforts throughout the pandemic. And while the clinic's mission is to eliminate health disparities in LGBTQ people, she stressed that anyone can provide welcoming care there. But can we pin this on restaurants? “We know how to do this right: social distancing, wearing your mask, diners in seats, possibly curfew, nobody standing, nobody standing behind bars,” Toia said. Since then, 92 contact tracers have been trained, 3504 individuals infected with COVID-19 have been interviewed, and … “People are going to restaurants with friends, or their extended families, or people they haven’t seen, and someone was infected. The state says robust contact tracing of at least 90% of reported cases within 24 hours of a diagnosis is necessary to be able to safely reopen. During the 30 days ending Nov. 13, bars were 15th on the list, with two outbreaks, and bars were 19th, with one outbreak. Contrace Public Health Corps ultimately hopes to recruit 20,000 workers nationwide by May 15, the companyâs founder and CEO Steve Waters said in an interview. 41 Full Time Contact Tracing jobs available in Oak Park, IL on Indeed.com. Maya Green, Howard Brown's Regional Medical Director for the South and West sides, said the Hyde Park clinic, 1525 E. 55th St., has greatly expanded its contact tracing work since the pandemic began. Across Illinois, less than half of people with COVID-19 diagnoses were interviewed by case investigators from Aug. 1 to Nov. 14, according to state data. Instead, applicants from Chicago will likely be hired by a local employment agency or nonprofit, who he said will prioritize the hiring of residents with âan understanding of local geography and culture.â, âOur model is based on the premise that as we are not operating as a traditional recruiting company,â said Waters. The top exposure location in the 30 days ending Nov. 13 was schools, followed by hospitals and clinics, business and retail locations, restaurants and bars and “other,” which includes travel and vacations. Indeed, when Pritzker made his announcement, he also cited research on the efficacy of face masks, good ventilation and physical distancing.