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Are you doing OK? On the ground with NYC's coronavirus contact tracers

Contact tracing is a time-honored public health technique, but the pandemic is putting it to a grueling new test around the world

An officer from the New York Police Department helps workers carry a body out of a house amid the coronavirus disease. Photo: Reuters
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An officer from the New York Police Department helps workers carry a body out of a house amid the coronavirus. Photo: Reuters

APPTI New York

Joseph Ortiz headed for the home of a stranger who tested positive for Covid-19, unsure how his unexpected visit would go.

The person hadn't answered phone calls from New York City's contact tracing programme, a massive effort to keep the coronavirus from spreading by getting newly diagnosed people to identify others they might have infected before those people spread it further.

Ortiz was out to try to bring the person into the fold.

It's a mixed bag. You never know what you're going to get," Ortiz, 30, said as he approached the person's Queens apartment building this month. Sometimes you have people who