Latest Metrics Show City Test & Trace Corps Now Reaching 96% of all Positive Cases , Surpassing Initial Benchmark Goal
Over past two weeks 74% of all cases complete their intake, nearing benchmark goal of 75% as COVID hospitalizations and test positivity remain at their lowest points since epidemic began
NEW YORK—Mayor de Blasio today announced the City’s Test & Trace Corps is now reaching 96% of COVID-19 cases citywide, according to the program’s latest metrics spanning the past two weeks. Seventy- four percent of positive cases are also completing intake, meaning they are isolating at home or at a hotel with the City monitoring them. Both metrics are surpassing or nearing the Test & Trace Corps’ initial, benchmark goals. Nearly two months since the program’s launch, COVID-related visits to emergency departments, case numbers, hospitalizations, deaths, and test positivity are at their lowest since the epidemic began.
“We set out to do the impossible with the Test & Trace Corps, standing up the nation’s largest contact tracing initiative a matter of weeks,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Now, with hospitalizations and test positivity at their lowest point since the beginning of the epidemic, it’s clear our efforts are working, giving us the reassurance we need to reopen our city safely.”
“Nearly two months in the Test & Trace Corps is now reaching more than 95% of new coronavirus cases across the city, and we are right at our evidence-based benchmark of having 75% all new cases isolating themselves with our help,” said Test & Trace Corps Executive Director Dr. Ted Long. “We know the importance of our efforts to keep New Yorkers both safe and healthy and currently the rate of new COVID cases and hospitalizations are the lowest since the COVID epidemic began.”
The Test & Trace Corps is the City’s comprehensive effort to test, trace, and treat every case of COVID-19. Through a partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Corps allows the City to immediately isolate and care for those who test positive for the virus and then rapidly track, assess, and quarantine anyone they may have infected.
Additional information on the Test & Trace Corps, including program metrics, is available here.