Britain, which has Europe’s highest official death
toll at over 32,700, has ramped up its testing from
5,000 a day in March to close to 100,000 a day
now. But it abandoned contact tracing after the
virus’ spread overwhelmed its capacity. A contact-
tracing app is in trial stages and 18,000 people are
being recruited to do the tracing legwork now.
Spain, which like Italy was among the
hardest-hit countries early on, is still ironing
out protocols for contact tracing and has no
immediate plans to roll out an app. While
Spain’s virus testing capacity has improved, the
government has left contact tracing largely to
the already stressed local health centers.
Germany, which has prided itself on its
comparatively low death rate, has engaged
more than 10,000 people in contact tracing. An
app is planned but is still weeks away. Turkey,
meanwhile, has credited its army of contact
tracers for its success in slowing the virus’
spread. About 5,850 teams reached out to and
tested close to 470,000 people suspected of
being infected.
Italy abandoned any concerted effort at contact
tracing when its north got overwhelmed in
late February. But health care officials say
contact tracing, as well as testing, protective
masks and social distancing, remain key to
further reopening.
Italy’s mask problem began when Arcuri, the
emergency commissioner, fixed a set price
— .50 euro plus tax — for surgical masks that
Italy only began producing domestically in
recent weeks.
Producers balked at the low price and two
distributors that had promised to get 12