Test And Trace In The News
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Latest news about #TestAndTrace
September 11-17, 2020
Lack of Antigen Test Reporting Leaves Country ‘Blind to the Pandemic’ (Kaiser Health News) – Forty-eight states responded to a KHN survey in September revealing “variation” in whether people who test positive with an antigen test are counted as “confirmed” cases, and whether antigen results are reported at all.
UW-Madison fires back at Dane County for proposing online classes, sending students home (Wisconsin State Journal) – “UW-Madison started the semester with an inadequate testing ability and number of contact tracers on staff, straining the county’s public health resources” a county administrator said.
Genomic fingerprints help Minnesota health officials track source of coronavirus outbreaks (Minnesota Star-Tribune) – Epidemiologists are trying to advance genomic sequencing to provide real-time information about COVID-19 outbreaks, similar to foodborne illnesses.
Contact tracers try to keep up with Iowa’s soaring coronavirus infections. Experts say the state needs many more. (Des Moines Register) – State began in July to list people as having recovered from the coronavirus 28 days after testing positive, unless information was available to show patients died or were still hospitalized.
Recoveries outpace new COVID-19 cases in South Dakota Tuesday (Argus Leader) – South Dakota saw 320 new confirmed cases and 393 recoveries, which brought the number of active cases to 2,817.
Coronavirus cases spike among school-age children in Florida, while state orders some counties to keep data hidden (Washington Post) – Confusion over how to get information about coronavirus exposures in schools has weighed on some parents’ decisions about schooling.
Pinned news
The Plan That Could Give Us Our Lives Back (The Atlantic) – Feature article on the benefits of building the national testing strategy around rapid testing.
Contact Tracing, a Key Way to Slow COVID-19, Is Badly Underused by the U.S. (Scientific American) – Despite tracing’s success in other countries, the U.S. government has failed to adequately fund or apply the tool.
How Is COVID-19 Case Data Collected? (Nightingale) – Public health data visualization specialist Amanda Makulec traces the steps involved in compiling coronavirus data.
COVID-19 testing in the U.S. is abysmal. Again. (Vox) – As the country approached the benchmark of 500,000 tests per day, “attention to testing seemed to plummet.”
How Covid-19 Contact Tracing Works on Your Phone (WIRED) – Explainer on the Apple-Google API for smartphones to facilitate contact tracing.
Bipartisan Privacy Legislation for Contact Tracing Apps Introduced in Senate – Bill makes participation voluntary and gives consumers control over personal data, limiting types of data that can be collected.
Biden’s Testing Strategy Sets Up a Clear Contrast With Trump on the Coronavirus (The New York Times) – Analysis of the differences between Biden’s federal-driven testing plan and the Trump adminstration’s approach.
You Don’t Need Invasive Tech for Successful Contact Tracing. Here’s How It Works. (ProPublica) – Overview of features of effective contact tracing programs.
Democrats introduce bill to protect health data used for tracing the coronavirus (CNBC) – Measures include requiring companies collecting data to meet security standards.
Coronavirus: How to Do Testing and Contact Tracing (Tomas Pueyo) – Argues that successfully containing COVID-19 requires identifying infected people and 70-90% of their contacts for isolation or quarantine.