Testing & Tracing: How to safely slow Covid-19
Experts say isolating individuals who test positive for coronavirus and tracing those they came into contact with is the only truly safe way to reopen stay-at-home orders. NBC's Alice Barr reports.
(NBC News) — Three southern states announced plans this week to begin reopening. Among them is Georgia, where mayors are pushing back, saying they haven’t met the white house guidelines for reducing cases before opening businesses like barbershops and gyms.
“Reopening without full knowledge of how many cases you have is basically Russian roulette with people’s lives,” warns Dr. Jeremy Faust of Brigham and Women’s hospital.
Other states are wrestling with their own plans to open back up, as health experts warn a second wave of cases could coincide with flu season at the end of the year and hit even harder.
“Unless you isolate people who test positive, trace their contacts and quarantine their contacts, you box it in, we’re really not getting the benefit of testing,” says former Centers for Disease Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg will help develop and fund the state’s testing program. It will include training thousands of workers to trace contacts of the infected.
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