We need more testing, statewide contact tracing
The first and foremost objective in order to defeat the coronavirus, we’ve been told from day one, is to “flatten the curve.” What that means is getting to the point at which, day after day, there are no new cases. We can never, of course, reduce the total number of positive cases that have already occurred. But we can aim for the day when there are no new cases reported for the previous day – and then none the next day and the next day after that. When we reach that point, the total number since the count first began weeks ago will not change. At that point the curve, consisting of the total number of cases, will be flat – a horizontal line.
Unfortunately, Connecticut is a long way from flattening the curve. During the week of April 19- 25, there were 7,032 new cases – on average more than 1,000 per day. Last Sunday, there were 687 new cases, last Monday 728 new cases, last Tuesday 315 new cases, last Wednesday 455 new cases, and last Thursday 933 new cases. That’s clearly an improvement over the week before. But flattening the curve means no new cases, and we’re a long way from zero new cases.
The state has, it should be said, made progress in increasing the number of testing facilities, including walkin facilities, in New Haven and elsewhere, and in increasing the number of people who’ve been tested. And the number of hospitalizations has decreased each day for the past week, surely a good sign. Nevertheless, if the state is to flatten the curve, two things are urgently needed: Much more testing and an extensive contact tracing program.
Through last Thursday, the state had conducted 97,133 tests, a number that represents 2.7 percent of the state population. But according to the COVID Tracking Project, as of Thursday Rhode Island had conducted 63,710 tests, which represents 6 percent of its population. New York had conducted 900,636 tests, which represents 4.6 percent of its population. And Massachusetts had conducted 275,647 tests, which represents 4 percent of its population. Rhode Island has tested more than twice as many people as Connecticut on a per capita basis, New York has tested 70 percent more people than Connecticut on a per capita basis, and Massachusetts has tested almost 50 percent more of its population than Connecticut has.
Clearly, Connecticut needs to dramatically increase its testing. But it also needs to develop and implement without delay a statewide program of contact tracing because, until those who have been in contact with a person who has the coronavirus self- quarantine themselves, the virus will continue to spread.
Fortunately, there’s an outstanding program of contact tracing in Massachusetts that can be used as a model for one in Connecticut. Working with Partners In Health, an NGO that has experience in battling epidemics around the world,
Massachusetts has arranged for 1,000 people to track down by telephone those who have had contact with an infected person and advise them to self- quarantine so as to prevent them from passing on the virus to others. Created after a late- night call between Gov. Charlie Baker and Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the former president of the World Bank and one of the founders of Partners In Health, the program, called the Community Tracing Collaborative, started Friday. Working through a state call center, tracers will try to contact every person in the state who has tested positive for the coronavirus, obtain the names of all those with whom the person came in touch in the two days prior to their first symptoms, and then contact those individuals and urge them to self- quarantine for 14 days, so as not to pass on the virus . If all those who are contacted cooperate, Massachusetts may succeed in flattening its curve.
On Tuesday, Gov. Ned Lamont announced ContaCT, acomputerized contact tracing program that’s being developed in cooperation with Microsoft, will be up and running with 800 tracers by mid- May. The program will be operated by the state Department of Public Health, working with the 64 local public health departments in the state. 300 tracers have already been committed from those departments and hopefully 500 more will volunteer, all of whom will be trained by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
This is an important step forward in the state’s response to COVID- 19.