Bloomberg to fund $10M coronavirus tracking program for New York

NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that Michael Bloomberg will fund a pilot program to test and trace coronavirus infection rates as the state’s daily death rate dipped slightly to 474.

The former New York City mayor will fund a $10 million initial plan to trace people who test positive for the deadly virus, a key hurdle to safely reopening the state.

“You have weeks to get this up and running. It’s a super-ambitious undertaking,” Cuomo said. “And Mayor Bloomberg will help coordinate the entire effort.”

A statewide random-testing effort is working to identify what share of New York’s population is infected with coronavirus. The tracing effort will track people across county and city lines.

Cuomo suggested that up to 10% or more of New York City’s population may have been infected.

“How could you possibly trace a million people? You can’t. You do the best you can,” he said. “But for every person you isolate … that’s one less person walking around infecting another 10 people.”

During what he called a “productive” meeting with President Trump Tuesday, Cuomo said the leaders agreed to double New York’s testing program from the 20,000 daily tests now being performed to 40,000.

The governor said the testing would be “ramped up” but admitted he has no time frame for achieving the target.

He said the federal government has also allocated $1.3 billion to fund tracing efforts, which Cuomo portrayed as an experiment that would benefit states across the nation as they seek to reopen using the same process.

The governor did not detail how the Bloomberg-run pilot plan would interact with federally funded plans or how they would collate and share information.

Even as Cuomo gave his daily update, demonstrators chanted and honked horns outside on an Albany street to demand the state reopen businesses and schools faster.

Cuomo insisted that he would resist pressure to reopen the state prematurely and potentially put New Yorkers’ lives at risk.

“Beware, because there can be a second wave, or there could be a third wave,” he said. “So, don’t be cocky just because you got hit by a wave and it didn’t knock you off your feet.”

The governor pushed back forcefully against a reporter who echoed protesters’ claim that the economic pain of the shutdown is worse than the public health cost of the pandemic.

“The cost of the virus is death, which is worse,” Cuomo said. “Economic pain, bad. Death, worse. Anxiety and stress from being stuck inside the house, bad. Death, worse.”