CDC Director: 'Very Aggressive' Contact Tracing Needed

For U.S. To Return To Normal

April 10, 20205:00 AM ET

"Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spoke with NPR on Thursday, saying that his agency is working on a plan to safely reopen the United States.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

It's the question on everyone's minds: What will it take for us to come out of this period of extreme social distancing and return to some semblance of normal life?

It turns out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working on a plan to allow the U.S. to safely begin to scale back those policies. CDC Director Robert Redfield spoke with NPR on Thursday, saying that the plan relies on not only ramped-up testing but "very aggressive" contact tracing of those who do test positive for the coronavirus, and a major scale-up of personnel to do the necessary work.

Contact tracing is the process of finding and reaching out to the contacts of someone who tests positive for an infectious pathogen. Those contacts are then quarantined or monitored, and if any of them are also positive, the process is repeated with their contacts, and on and on, until the chain of transmission is halted. It's a labor-intensive, time-consuming practice that for decades has been a fundamental public health tool for containing infectious diseases."

moar:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/10/831200054/cdc-director-very-aggressive-contact-tracing-needed-for-u-s-to-return-to-normal

amazing what pepe can see when pepe watches the water

Offices of Hiroshima politicians linked to ex-justice minister

raided

APR 10, 2020

"Public prosecutors searched offices and other places related to members of the assembly of Hiroshima Prefecture on Thursday over an election campaign scandal involving former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai, it has been learned.

The assembly members included one whose home was also searched. This member supported the campaign of Kawai’s wife, Anri, in the July 2019 House of Councilors election, helping her recruit announcers who spoke from vehicles to introduce the candidate, informed sources said.

Katsuyuki Kawai, 57, is suspected to have given cash to local politicians with the intention of gaining their support for gathering votes for his wife, according to the sources.

The assembly member whose home was searched, speaking to the press, denied receiving cash from Kawai, a House of Representatives lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who became justice minister later in 2019.

Endorsed by the LDP, Anri Kawai, 46, won one of the two Upper House seats contested in the Hiroshima constituency in the election."

moar:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/04/10/national/crime-legal/offices-hiroshima-ex-justice-minister-raided/

Coronavirus pandemic: EU agrees €500bn rescue package

4 hours ago

"EU finance ministers have agreed a €500bn (£430bn;$540bn) rescue package for European countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The chairman of the Eurogroup, Mário Centeno, announced the deal, reached after marathon discussions in Brussels.

It comes as Spain's prime minister said the country was close to passing the worst of its coronavirus outbreak.

Spain has Europe's highest number of confirmed cases, with 152,446. More than 15,000 people have died.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned the world is facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Kristalina Georgieva said the coronavirus pandemic would turn economic growth "sharply negative" this year."

moar:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52238932