Time - USA (2020-05-11)

34 Time May 11, 2020

needed to control this pandemic, and doing so may
require equally unprecedented solutions. Antici-
pating that the gap between testing need and test-
ing capacity will only yawn wider as states reopen,
the Rockefeller Foundation, for example, has pro-
posed a coordinated regional command system
for testing that would track and redirect supplies
to where they are needed. The foundation’s action
plan, backed by a $15 million initial investment,
also calls for engaging hundreds, even thousands,
of smaller labs that currently don’t perform tests
for the public. So far, leaders from California and
five U.S. cities are working to implement the plan
and increase access to testing. (The foundation
sponsored a recent TIME 100 Talk.)

2. TRACKING

Once testing at scale is in place, local trends
should dictate when and how a particular region
might begin to emerge from self-isolation. Loos-
ening of social- distancing policies won’t happen
universally across the nation, since the burden of
disease is vastly different from New York to Ne-
vada. Each region—whether defined as a com-
munity, a state or a group of states—will have to

make customized decisions about releasing its

residents in phases based on its specific disease

trajectory as well as its population density, among

other factors.

There are, however, some universal bench-

marks. Bloom and others believe new daily cases,

identified by wide-scale testing, would have to

fall consistently in a given region for at least two

weeks before leaders can start discussing reopen-

ing businesses and schools. At that point, health

experts would investigate where the new cases are.

If they’re confined to local and sporadic clusters,

that’s a sign that the virus’s circle of transmission is

limited and potentially shrinking.

Such scenarios would mean not that the virus

is necessarily going away, but that the local health

system is in a decent position to manage the load

of people who get infected. “We are not just stay-

ing home in the magical belief that the virus is

going to go away,” says Frieden. “We are staying

home so we can strengthen the health care and

public- health systems.” The idea isn’t to eradicate

coronavirus completely — at least not yet—but to

bring its spread to manageable levels. As flare-

ups occur, they can be doused with another criti-

cal contagion- fighting public-health technique:

COVID- 19

Once a patient tests positive,

public-health workers begin the

sleuthlike task of identifying

and informing every person

who could have been exposed

If contacts are infected, the

process starts again; the U.S.

public-health system needs to

add about 100,000 contact

tracers to the workforce to

handle the caseload Guidelines vary but generally instruct

tracers to identify

any person who was

within 6 ft. of the

patient, starting

48 hours before the

onset of symptoms

Tracers also note

risk factors such as

whether the patient

was coughing or

wearing a mask, and

exposure time—as

little as 10 minutes

per some guidelines

Tracers contact

each of the possibly

exposed to instruct

them to quarantine

for 14 days after

the exposure and

to self-monitor

for symptoms

In health care settings,

where patients are more

certainly contagious, just

a few minutes of contact

is considered prolonged

exposure

Smartphones may assist

in the effort: Google and

Apple are developing

Bluetooth-based

proximity sensors, but

users will have to opt in

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

HOW CONTACT

TRACING WORKS

As U.S. businesses ready to

open again, states will turn

to contact tracing to help

manage small outbreaks

of COVID-19