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Councilmember Levine urges neighbors to accept contact tracers, warns only one-third share contacts; city offers hotels for isolation
Summary
Councilmember Levine told CB2 the city has testing capacity but contact tracing is limited by public response; only about a third of people with positive tests are sharing contacts. Levine urged community board help to encourage cooperation and highlighted city-provided isolation hotels and support services.
Councilmember Levine, chairing the City Council health committee, briefed Manhattan Community Board 2 on the city’s testing and contact-tracing efforts and urged neighborhood leaders to encourage cooperation with tracers and to promote resources for isolation.
Levine said testing capacity has grown since spring and diagnostic testing is now widely available. He cautioned that testing and tracing programs rely on public cooperation: “Only one‑third of the people who get positive tests are sharing contacts with the contact tracers,” he told the board, emphasizing that the tracing program will not succeed without residents taking calls and sharing contacts.
Levine described city resources that can help people isolate safely: free hotel rooms with food, laundry and prescription delivery, plus services to support people who cannot isolate at home. He also said the city should consider income replacement or other incentives for hourly workers who cannot afford to lose two weeks of pay to isolate away from home.
Why it matters: successful contact tracing requires both capacity and public trust. Board members asked how to communicate messages about testing, quarantine supports and the differences between antibody tests and diagnostic tests. Levine and other elected officials urged public messaging emphasizing privacy protections, availability of support and the public-health reasoning for responding to contact tracers.
Ending: Levine asked the board to use its community credibility to tell residents to answer contact tracers, share contacts and take advantage of city isolation supports so that reopenings do not result in renewed surges.
