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"We would never mention a name," says Sarah Braunstein, the director of the city health department's HIV epidemiology program who is helping to lead the local contact tracing program for the coronavirus. Working remotely, contact tracers would be trained to use interview scripts and follow procedures to keep the personal information they'll enter into an online database confidential. That's especially important with the coronavirus because some people who have it don't have symptoms.īut a major challenge facing public health officials is the lack of widespread testing for COVID-19 in the U.S.Ĭontact tracing efforts have also raised concerns about privacy.įor New York City's contact tracing program for the coronavirus, the local health department says during hourlong phone calls, investigators would share only limited information with people who get a call because they may have been in close contact with a person who tests positive. The key to contact tracing is to collect information, as soon as possible, from people who may be infected. The charitable foundation of former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg says it's committing $10.5 million to New York state's new contact tracing efforts, which will be conducted mainly through phone calls to people who test positive for the coronavirus and to people with whom they're in close contact. Kelly Henning, an epidemiologist who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' public health program. And I think that's something that most people are not wanting to do, obviously," says Dr. "If we don't start the contact tracing work, we have to shelter in place for longer periods. Starting this month, the state is looking to hire as many as 17,000 contact tracers as health departments across New York prepare to launch an investigation more than two months into a pandemic that has killed more than 26,000 people in the state. Passengers board the Staten Island Ferry in April in New York, where health departments are trying to ramp up contact tracing efforts.Īs more states turn to contact tracing as part of their next phase in containing the coronavirus, New York is trying to build what could become one of the largest contact tracing programs for COVID-19 in the United States.