Star Journal Staff

The Oneida County Health Department (OCHD) and the Sheriff’s Office are warning citizens to be aware that people have reported receiving calls from individuals claiming to be from the OCHD. The Sheriff’s Office is recommending the following:

Protect yourself

• Be aware of scammers pretending to be COVID-19 contact tracers. Legitimate contact tracers will never ask for your Medicare number, financial information, or attempt to set up a COVID-19 test for you and collect payment information for the test.

If you are called by a contact tracer and are unsure if they are legitimate, call the OCHD at 715-369-6111 to verify they are actually working in a professional capacity with OCHD.

• OCHD will not call to talk about the election or find out which candidate you are voting for.

• OCHD will not call unsolicited to tell people NOT to get a flu shot.

• If you release information before realizing the call is fraudulent, contact the Oneida County Sheriff;s office to report it.

• If you suspect COVID-19 health care fraud, report it immediately or call 800-HHS-TIPS (800-447-8477)

Although there may be some bad actors making phone calls impersonating OCHD, there are contact tracers making calls to obtain important information.  Through the use of contact tracing, OCHD is able to notify individuals who have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.  Without cooperation from the community, contact tracing cannot be successful and notifications can’t be made.

This is a rapidly evolving situation and information may change. To read the latest information about COVID-19 check the Oneida County Health Department website (oneidacountypublichealth.org) or Facebook page (facebook.com/OneidaCountyHealthDepartment/), the Department of Health Services (DHS) website (https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19/index.htm) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html).