Lamont Talking With NY/NJ About Coronavirus Contact Tracing

CONNECTICUT — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Michael Bloomberg will help coordinate and fund a contact tracing program. Cuomo said that New Jersey and Connecticut were also part of it, but Gov. Ned Lamont said that Connecticut is still exploring the potential partnership.

Lamont said that there is no formal agreement yet, but that the three states have been sharing information about contact tracing strategies.

Lamont said a partnership should complement existing staff, volunteers, processes, and technology.

State COO Josh Geballe said that the state is looking at several different online platforms that would help modernize contact tracing.

Contact tracing helps determine who has come into contact with someone who tests positive for the virus.

The former New New York mayor will coordinate the $10 million testing/tracing program in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey through Johns Hopkins University, Cuomo said Wednesday.

"How do we do it? I don't know," Cuomo said. "Michael Bloomberg will decide."

Bloomberg's team will develop an online curriculum to hire and train disease tracers, provide upwards of $10 million in funding and conduct background checks, said Cuomo's aide Melissa DeRosa.

New York State's test-and-trace plan will launch in a matter of weeks and expand as it launches, Cuomo said.

The New York governor admitted it would be impossible to trace every positive case but said the goal was to collect data to inform future policies to reopen the economy.

"How do you educate yourself on reopening? Well you need data," Cuomo said. "Where does data come from? Well it comes from testing.

Connecticut Ramps Up Testing

Officials announced Tuesday that Quest Diagnostics and Hartford Healthcare will team up to boost the state’s coronavirus testing capacity by 80 percent, which will bump Connecticut up to about 4,600 tests per day.

Quest President and CEO Steve Rusckowski said the company anticipates testing up to 200,000 people nationally per day by mid-May for coronavirus antibodies.

Antibody testing could help officials determine what percent of people in an area have already been infected by the virus. Some people infected with the virus are asymptomatic or only get minor cold-like symptoms. Right now it’s unknown with certainty if antibodies provide full immunity and if so how long it lasts.

Additional reporting by Kathleen Culliton, Patch Staff