MANHATTAN (CN) — Announcing a dozen new diagnostic testing sites in conjunction with New York City’s public hospital system, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the capacity is not yet half where he wants to be.
The city conducts 14,000 tests per day right now, with a focus on high-risk populations and those with severe symptoms. De Blasio said Tuesday he wants that number to be 20,000 tests a day, then 50,000.
“The criteria for who gets tested will keep evolving as more and more testing becomes available, and we'll have more to say on that in the coming days, but it stands to reason,” the mayor added. “As we reach deeper and deeper into the city, we want more and more people to participate.”
Though the city’s death rates tied to the novel coronavirus are slowly declining, as is the infection rate, the mayor emphasized that testing is “absolutely a requirement if we’re going to win this fight.”
One reopening model by the Harvard Global Health Institute, conducted for The New York Times, estimates that 35,415 New Yorkers would need to be tested per day to keep the virus under control. Under a different Harvard model, 19,352 tests would be needed daily.
De Blasio has repeatedly called on the federal government for more assistance with testing capacity. The city has 184,319 confirmed cases. In addition to 15,101 confirmed Covid-19 deaths, New York City has tallied another 5,136 probable deaths.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has in recent months issued mixed guidance on mask wearing, framed the action Tuesday as a sign of respect. At his press conference in Johnson City, New York, he held up homemade masks that said things like “New York Tough” across the front.
“Any mask, even if it says nothing, it does say something,” he said. “It makes a statement. When you wear a mask, you say, ‘I respect you.’ That’s what the mask says to everyone you walk past.”
State data shows 338,485 confirmed cases and 21,845 confirmed fatalities in New York on Tuesday. Unlike the Big Apple, New York state does not include presumed Covid-19 fatalities in its official data, so that number is likely low.
De Blasio also Tuesday announced two new appointments to his city Test and Trace Corps, which has drawn scrutiny over the mayor’s housing of the initiative within the city’s public hospital system rather than its health department, which has traditionally handled contact tracing. De Blasio has feuded with the Department of Health over public health messaging and school closures in the pandemic.
In an article from Politico Tuesday, consultant Amy Dixon said the switch delayed a highly time-sensitive process in the nation’s hardest-hit city. The City Council intends to conduct a hearing on the issue Friday.
Contact tracing is a delicate art that involves identifying everyone with whom an infected person had significant contact; calling or visiting them; and getting them to self-isolate or get tested. It is difficult work, and timing makes all the difference, emphasized Bruce Y. Lee with the School of Public Health at the City University of New York.
“Any further delay in setting up and implementing contact tracing would be concerning since the U.S. is already far behind when it comes to trying to contain the Covid-19 coronavirus,” Lee said in an email to Courthouse News. “This is a public health emergency that requires everyone to work together and coordinate.
"We also have to keep in mind that hospitals and clinics are only one component of health and health care. Doing contact tracing at such a large scale requires an understanding and connections throughout all the different communities. Otherwise, certain areas and populations may be missed, which could end up setting everything back. With the Covid-19 coronavirus being so contagious, it only takes a few missed groups for the spread of the virus to surge.”