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Gov. Steve Sisolak gets emotional during a Phase 1 reopening update news conference, Friday, May 15, 2020.
Monday, June 1, 2020 | 4:41 p.m.
Gov. Steve Sisolak has announced a community-based testing, laboratory analysis and contact tracing plan to continue efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The plan, a joint undertaking between the state Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Emergency Management and Public Health Laboratory, will be funded primarily through federal dollars sent through multiple economic aid packages, reimbursement programs and grants, including the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) passed earlier this year.
“This plan marks a major milestone for the State of Nevada, formalizing and expanding our existing efforts to battle COVID-19 as we embrace our new normal,” Sisolak said in a statement.
The plan includes providing logistical support for local and tribal communities in the way of sample collection kits, personal protective equipment and increased resources for antibody collection.
The plan also calls for pursuing public-private partnerships between the state and private labs and medical providers in order to continue to increase testing capacity.
Mark Pandori, director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in Reno, will serve as the state’s chief of testing, coordinating Nevada’s testing strategies, including how best to increase testing capacity.
The plan also calls for developing a digital contract tracing solution through businesses Deloitte and Salesforce meant to “modernize and streamline” contact tracing. More than 250 workers have been added through Deloitte to work on the state’s contact tracing goals.
Those goals include refilling the state’s pre-coronavirus personal protective equipment stockpile and testing at least 2% of the state’s population monthly for at least a year.
Many Southern Nevada health experts have stressed the need to improve contact tracing capabilities in order to better understand the spread of the virus, and Sisolak has long said the state will work to expand its capability.
Brian Labus, an epidemiologist at the UNLV School of Public Health, said in a past interview that there are levels of interaction that must be ranked in order to productively trace contacts.
“Simply passing someone in the grocery store is obviously not going to be the same risk as living with someone or working in an office with them,” he said. “We know which ones are high risk for transmission, and go after those first.”
The Nevada economy is gradually starting to reopen. Last week, the state moved into the second phase of its reopening plan, allowing businesses such as bars and water parks to operate at half capacity. Casinos will follow Thursday.
Nevada is transitioning back to a relative normal after the coronavirus hit the country hard a few months ago.
As of Monday, there had been 169,813 coronavirus tests performed in Nevada, with 8,688 confirmed cases and 421 deaths.
