New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the initiative on Wednesday, saying it would be developed in co-operation with neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut. The program, he said, will be implemented within a few weeks.
"Mr. Bloomberg will design and train the program and contribute financially," Governor Cuomo told Mr Bloomberg, who served as the city's mayor from 2002 to 2013. "He will form an organization that can help." in hiring people. ”
Other partners in the initiative include Johns Hopkins University and the global health organization Vital Strategies.
Mr Bloomberg, who spent over $ 1 billion of his fortune earlier this year in a failed attempt to win the Democratic nomination for the presidential nomination, is a well-known philanthropist. He has donated over $ 8 billion to fund causes such as climate action and gun control.
The governor's office said Mr Bloomberg was making an investment of more than $ 10 million in the initiative to track down the coronavirus. New York also has a federal fund of $ 1.3 billion to track down the deadly virus.
"He has tremendous knowledge in government as well as from a business perspective in the private sector," said Governor Cuomo, noting that Mr. Bloomberg's businesses in China and Europe have been shut down and reopened as a result of coronavirus problems.
The state of New York has confirmed over a quarter of a million people infected with the COVID-19 virus. More than 15,000 people have died, but the governor said on Wednesday that the death toll had stopped rising and that they were falling slowly.
The governor said the effort to double testing capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 individuals a day, including the massive virus tracking initiative, would help New York move to the low transmission stage and eventually reopen. economy.
In terms of initiative, Mr. Bloomberg plans to start with the current number of 225 employees, which will be expanded to several thousand. Governor Cuomo said New York universities have about 35,000 medical students who will be an important source for recruiting members for the coronavirus tracking initiative.
"We will need to hire more people for this expansion program," said Cuomo, noting that the number of employees will be proportional to the rate of infection.
Currently, the northern part of New York has only 7 percent of infestations in the country, while the city of New York and surrounding areas account for about 93 percent of those infected. VOA
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