New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will fund an “army” of coronavirus contact tracing efforts.
“It’s a very big undertaking, and we thank him very much for taking it on,” Cuomo said during his press briefing Wednesday.
Cuomo said New York state currently has about 225 “tracers” — health officials and researchers tracking coronavirus cases and those who may have been exposed to the virus. Bloomberg will also enlist about 35,000 State University of New York and City University of New York medical students to help with the tracing effort.
“Michael Bloomberg will design the program, design the training. He’s going to make a financial contribution. It’s a superambitious undertaking. I don’t know what the financial contribution will be,” Cuomo said.
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While his colleagues did not offer an exact figure, Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa said the contribution would be “upwards of $10 million.”
The program, which will extend to the entire tri-state effort, will “literally need thousands” of people to help. Counties will hire people for the program independently and will coordinate with each other and the state government to share research.
New York, which has experienced the country’s most severe outbreak, has seen a recent stabilization of daily cases reported and a decline in daily intubations, which Cuomo says is “a good sign.”
