COVID Contact Tracing Pilot Program

Governor Cuomo announced today that the State will work to expand its COVID Contact Tracing Pilot Program by teaming with the NYC Department of Health, former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s company Vital Strategies, Johns Hopkins University, Resolve to Save Lives and the SUNY/CUNY system to help with tracing training, recruitment, guidance, and smart phone application development. This new system will hire an estimated 6,400 to 17,000 individuals to accomplish the goal of 30 contact tracers per 100,000 infected individuals. This program will also coordinate with the neighboring states of Connecticut and New Jersey as they too look to increase their tracing abilities.

Disinfecting the MTA

Governor Cuomo also announced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) Essential Connector Plan to upgrade their cleaning and disinfecting plan to cover the entire system, every evening. Beginning on May 6 from 1:00AM to 5:00AM the entire system will shut down to allow for the new plan to be put into action. During these periods of down time, the MTA will provide transportation options such as additional buses, for-hire-vehicles and “dollar-vans” to allow essential works and others get to their desired destinations. Further, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North lines will be able to continue their current normal operational during the scheduled cleanings. This plan will be carried out by a combination of efforts of the MTA, the State and the NYPD.

COVID-19 Numbers                                                     

We continue to appear to be on the far side of the COVID-19 plateau. That said, the number of deaths in the State has increased by 306 since yesterday to 18,321 total.