Gov. Cuomo Gives Update On State’s Contact Tracing Program

ALBANY – New York is taking more steps to fight COVID-19 across the state, including an aggressive statewide contact tracing program.

“We’re doing the testing; we’re coming up to scale on the testing. You need the tracing to come up to scale to meet what we’re doing on testing,” said Governor Cuomo.

Cuomo said the state will need 6,400 to 17,000 tracers depending on the infection rate. He says government employees like those who work for health departments will be deployed to become tracers.

If there’s not enough, then they’ll have to make new hires. The state is also teaming up with Johns Hopkins University to do the training.

“You have to train them right away because nobody’s done this before,” Cuomo said. “They’re going to need help; they’re going to need technology; they’re going to need monitoring. They’re going to have to be tested before they can do this.”