After graduating from BYU–Hawaii in 2020 with a biology degree, Otuafi said her cousin was willing to help her look for a job. During Otuafi’s job search, she said her cousin turned in her application at the Hawaii State Department of Health. After being contacted to set up an interview, she said she was really confused about how they got her information, but she took the job anyway.
As a contact tracer, Amelia Otuafi said she worked on cases for days and sometimes felt like she never had enough time.
An unexpected call
Her cousin, Atalina Pasi, a 2012 BYUH biology graduate, said she gave Otuafi’s application to her employer because she knew Otuafi wanted to pursue a career in public health. Pasi said the job required someone who spoke Tongan fluently and appealed to the Tongan community.
Pasi explained Otuafi, who is from Tonga, is trustworthy, kind, humble and knows how to take a more cultural approach. She also said her cousin “knows how to appeal to Tongans” because she “understands their fears about the vaccine” and is also aware of how they may be misled through misinformation.
A day in Otuafi’s life
Otuafi smiled and said, “Because my cousin submitted my application, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
She said she has been working with contact tracing since November of 2021 and is now the lead investigator on her team. During the first few months of working there, she said she learned how contact tracers retrace the steps of individuals who have either been exposed to or have COVID-19.
“When we get cases from the clinic, we call those who tested positive, then we give them their isolation day, [access to] resources such as food and shelter and get their whereabouts,” she said.
Otuafi said it is important to reach out to those who might have been in contact with COVID-19 so they can receive the correct care and resources to keep themselves and others safe.
Contact tracers all work in teams, and each team works with a certain demographic, she explained. Her team works with Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders and Filipinos.
Because Hawaii is so diverse, she said her team’s “main goal is to help people get access to resources … [and] provide them the education and the support they need.”
Fueled by love
Otuafi said working as a contract tracer requires a lot of patience and support from her co-workers because at times, people are not very cooperative and get upset when she tells them they are required to quarantine.
“We don’t blame them,” she added. Although working with people who aren’t very nice made the job hard, Otuafi explained they also worked with people who had family with medical issues and were just scared.
She said she even had to work closely with families who had a family member pass away. She described feeling horrible for those families and said sometimes the job would become too much to handle.
Because she worked remotely, Otuafi said she would step away from her computer to clean or hang out with friends in order to prevent burnout.
Pasi said when the COVID-19 cases recently increased, Otuafi was always working and often had to work overtime because there wasn’t enough time to hire and train more people. She said she even had to miss her grandmother’s birthday celebration.
Otuafi said love for the community, her family and her team keeps her inspired to continue working so no one gets left behind. Pasi added Otaufi was always serving the community through her work.
Pasi said Otuafi wishes to go back to Tonga someday and is excited to hear her home country is taking steps to get the vaccine. “She’s very passionate about Tonga,” she shared. “I know she will be such a great leader there when she does go back because of all of the experience she has gotten here.”