Columbia Will Run NYC's New Pandemic Response Institute

NEW YORK CITY — The city injected new life into a pair of public health efforts aiming to prepare New York City.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that Columbia University will run the city's planned Pandemic Response Institute.

"This is a big step forward and we've got the right people for this big responsibility," he said. "The city is going to invest initially $20 million in the Pandemic Response Institute to supercharge this effort."

De Blasio first unveiled broad plans for the Pandemic Response Institute late last year with the goal of opening in 2021.

He also Wednesday said a new Public Health Corps soon will launch with staff picked from the city's Test + Trace and vaccination efforts.

“Public Health Corps is going to be leading the way to get people connected who have been before,” he said. “And that’s going to make us resilient.”

The mayor first announced the corps in a September 2020 speech that promised substantial investments in public health. But his lofty speech lacked details and word about the Public Health Corps remained mostly silent for months.

Dave Chokshi, the city's health commissioner, said the corps will have 500 community health workers by December. About 100 community-based organizations will also fall under the corps' umbrella, he said.

Many corps workers will come from the city's Test + Trace Corps, which recently surpassed identifying 1 million close contacts to new COVID-19 cases.

“Our tracers have succeeded in keeping our city safe because they understand our communities because they’re from our communities,” Ted Long, who runs the effort, said.