The County is rolling out a new strategy in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The “T3” strategy will address three crucial areas: testing, tracing and treatment.
While treatment options for the novel coronavirus are still being developed, the County’s Health and Human Services Agency is focusing on isolating people with confirmed COVID-19 infections and quarantining their close contacts. HHSA is also working to increase the region’s testing and contact tracing capabilities.
“We continue to expand our team of contact tracers,” said HHSA Director Nick Macchione. “The number of tracers has surpassed 100 and this week, an additional 20 tracers will be added. These are our disease detectives and a critical component of our T3 strategy.”
To assess and increase testing capabilities, the County has organized a Laboratory Testing Task Force of local hospitals, relevant clinics and commercial laboratory systems. Right now, labs in the region can test more than 3,400 specimens per day. The County Task Force has set a goal of testing nearly 5,200 people a day, with that figure based on Harvard research being used by the state and federal government to set COVID-19 testing numbers. Two-Week Testing Trends
One of the federal criteria that the County is closely monitoring is the number of positive cases of COVID-19 in comparison to the number of tests administered over a 14-day period.
In the past 14 days, a total of 21,254 tests have been administered and 1,384, or 6.5%, were positive for COVID-19. This includes 173 new cases announced today (April 28). The goal is for that rolling percentage to trend downward over time.