What's happening
This bill requires COVID-19 contact tracers in Suffolk and Nassau counties to reflect community diversity and mandates annual diversity reports.
Why it matters
Aims to improve the effectiveness of contact tracing by ensuring tracers can communicate and connect with diverse communities. , which could increase trust and cooperation during public health crises.
Requires explicit annual reporting on diversity and recruitment efforts. , potentially creating accountability for local health departments to address disparities and barriers in hiring practices.
Addresses long-standing issues of underrepresentation in public health roles. , which may help reduce health inequities and ensure that information and resources reach marginalized or non-English-speaking populations more effectively.
Sets a time-limited mandate (ending January 1, 2022) for these diversity measures. , offering a window to assess the impact of such representation on public health outcomes and possibly inform future policy.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Diverse COVID Contact Tracers
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to rules
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
8476
IN SENATE
June 3, 2020
Introduced by Sen. MARTINEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to require that COVID-19 contact tracers in the counties of Suffolk and Nassau be representative of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the communities in which they serve to the greatest extent possible; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon the expiration thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The Suffolk County department of health services and any other Suffolk County agency, and any entity that hires persons after the effective date of this act to perform contact tracing pertaining to COVID-19 infections within the county of Suffolk, shall, to the greatest extent possible, hire contact tracers who are representative of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the communities in which they serve.
§ 2. The Suffolk County department of health services shall annually submit a report on contact tracer worker diversity within the county of Suffolk including outreach efforts to recruit a diverse workforce to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly beginning no later than December 31, 2020.
§ 3. The Nassau County department of health and any other Nassau County agency, and any entity that hires persons after the effective date of this act to perform contact tracing pertaining to COVID-19 infections within the county of Nassau, shall, to the greatest extent possible, hire contact tracers who are representative of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the communities in which they serve.
§ 4. The Nassau County department of health shall annually submit a report on contact tracer worker diversity within the county of Nassau including outreach efforts to recruit a diverse workforce to the governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly beginning no later than December 31, 2020.
§ 5. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be deemed repealed January 1, 2022.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16569-01-0
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to require that COVID-19 contact tracers in the counties of Suffolk and Nassau be representative of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the communities in which they serve to the greatest extent possible; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon the expi- ration thereof
Purpose or general idea of bill
To ensure that COVID-19 contact tracers adequately represent the commu- nities in which they are serving.
Summary of provisions
Section 1. Requires the Suffolk County department of health services and any other Suffolk County agency and any entity that hires persons to perform COVID-19 contact tracing within Suffolk County to hire contact tracers who are representative of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the communities in which they serve, to the greatest extent possible.
Section 2. Requires the Suffolk County department of health services to annually submit a report on contact tracer worker diversity within Suffolk County.
Section 3. Requires the Nassau County department of health and any other Nassau County agency and any entity that hires persons to perform COVID-19 contact tracing within Nassau County to hire contact tracers who are representative of the cultural and linguistic diversity of the communities in which they serve, to the greatest extent possible.
Section 4. Requires the Nassau County department of health to annually submit a report on contact tracer worker diversity within Nassau County.
Section 5. Sets out an immediate effective date and a repeal date of January 1, 2022.
Difference between original and amended version (if applicable)
N/A.
Justification
COVID-19 contact tracers are an essential means to gradually and safely reopening New York's economy. Contact tracers are tasked with notifying and isolating potentially-exposed individuals as COVID-19 positive cases are discovered. According to recent findings by Newsday, coronavirus testing at community health centers in Nassau and Suffolk counties, where the preponderance of patients are minorities with low incomes, consistently has documented far higher rates of COVID-19 infection than in the overall county populations, underscoring the prevalence of health care disparities in communities of color.
Gaining trust is imperative for the success of contact tracing, and ensuring that contact tracers have familiarity with varied languages and cultural practices will help minimize further population exposure and aid in stopping the spread of COVID-19. The Long Island region should promote diversity in its contact tracing recruitment initiatives in order to equitably distribute employment opportunities and enhance effi- ciency in our contact tracing program.
Prior legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be deemed repealed January 1, 2022.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.