Bloomberg Returns to Public Life, Will Lead NY's Efforts to Combat Virus Infections

New York - Mike Bloomberg is attempting to repair his tarnished reputation by leading a key intuitive that will allow New York state to reopen its economy.

The failed Democratic presidential candidate made his first foray back into the public eye Wednesday, when he and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the former mayor of New York City will create a path to track those infected with the coronavirus and keep them away from healthy people.

Cuomo's accepting of Bloomberg's help did not come cheap - the multibillionaire founder of Bloomberg LLP is making a $10.5 million donation to the effort. 

The contact tracing program will be done in coordination with the downstate region as well as New Jersey and Connecticut and will serve as an important resource to gather best practices and as a model that can be replicated across the nation.

As part of this effort, the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University will build an online curriculum and training program for contact tracers. The New York State Department of Health will work with Bloomberg Philanthropies to help recruit investigators to trace those with the disease 

"One of the most critical pieces of getting to a new normal," Cuomo said in a statement, "is to ramp up testing, but states have a second big task - to put together an army of people to trace each person who tested positive, find out who they contacted and then isolate those people."

Contact tracing helps prevent the spread of a virus by using testing to confirm if someone has thr virus, interviewing that person to identify people they may have been in contact with during their illness and during the few days before symptoms began, reaching out to their contacts to alert them to their risk of infection and then referring contacts to medical providers and asking non-ill people to stay home for 14 days to be sure they don't spread illness to others.

Several countries, such as Germany, Singapore and South Korea, have used contact tracing effectively amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. As a result, those countries have been able to re-open for business quicker and have experienced fewer deaths and lower rates of infection.

 . (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)