Governor Inslee lays out statewide contact tracing plan for COVID-19

At his May 12 press conference, Governor Jay Inslee laid out the plans for the statewide contact tracing initiative.

“[The initiative] is robust, it is vigorous and it is comprehensive, and it needs to be all three to be successful,” Inslee said. “If we do not succeed in this second stage of our efforts, this virus could come bright back and bite us.”

Inslee said that the state has seen early success in its efforts against COVID-19, and this initiative will represent a transition from one strategy to another. Social distancing was the primary tool against the virus, and when the state is looking to open the economy, contact tracing and isolation of those who test positive will be the next tool.

“If this is successful, it will allow us to open our economy,” Inslee said. “This next stage… actually will be more difficult, and its success will depend on both the state and local public health officials and families who will need to be committed to this effort to help their community.”

Box the virus

The information Inslee provided was labeled as “Contact Tracing: Box in The Virus.” The steps were listed as follows:


Contact tracing involves interviewing people with positive COVID-19 tests to identify who they’ve been in contact with, getting those people tested and then making sure they isolate themselves and their families.

Isolation/Quarantine upon first symptoms

The Governor recommends that people are to quarantine immediately for 14-days upon experiencing the first systems. This includes entire households – e.g. all members of the household must isolate with the possible infected person.

Anyone who has had contact with that person will be quarantined until they have tested negative, even if they have not tested positive or shown symptoms.



Test widely

Contact tracers will reach out to notify those that may have been exposed to COVID-19 within 24 to 48 hrs of a positive test result. The governor compared the contract tracers or “COVID brigade,” to the operation of a “fire brigade.”



Isolate quickly, identify, and quarantine contacts

To isolate quickly, 1,371 contact tracers will be trained to implement steps 2-5. The plan is to hire additional contact tracers including volunteers to relief national guardsman.

The national gaurd’s function will not be that of law enforcement only public health.



This effort will be a partnership between local health districts and the Washington State Department of health. Individuals should quarantine immediately upon first symptoms and stay quarantined until receiving a negative test result.

Those who test positive will need to isolate for 14 days; that includes everyone who lives in the household. An interviewer will call those who test positive for COVID-19 to identify and inform close contacts of potential exposure.

Inslee also spent time talking about the privacy measures related to contact tracing. Individuals’ data will only be accessible to public health professionals; it will not be shared with anyone else. Contacts will not be told the name of the person who may have exposed them to COVID-19.

By the end of the week, Inslee said the state will have 1,371 contact tracers trained and ready; 351 of those will be national guard, 390 will be Department of Licensing and 630 will be State/Local health professionals.

Contact tracers will not ask for the following information: immigration status, social security number, financial info or marital status.
Enforcement

For those businesses/individuals that don’t comply, the governor stated that he confirmed with Attorney General Bob Ferguson, there will be sanctions in civil or crimal court.

At timestamp 38:55 in the video of the press conference below, one reporter asked: “When it comes to contact tracing, how are you guys going to handle people or families who want to refuse to test or to self isolate? If they want to leave their home to get groceries I know you’ve said they can’t do that; how will you make sure they don’t?“

Below is Jay Inslee’s response:

• “We will have attached to the families a family support person who will check in with them to see what they need on a daily basis… and help them. If they can’t get a friend to do their grocery shopping, we will help get them groceries in some fashion. If they need pharmaceuticals to be picked up, we will make sure they get their pharmaceuticals… That’s going to help encourage them to maintain their isolation too.

• “As far as refusal, it just shouldn’t come to that, and it really hasn’t. We’ve had really good success when we ask people to isolate, and they’ve done so in really high percentages, so we’re happy about that, and we believe that will continue.”

Therefore, those individuals that refuse to cooperate with contact tracers and/or refuse testing, those individuals will not be allowed to leave their homes to purchase basic necessities such as groceries and/or prescriptions. Those persons will need to make arrangements through friends, family, or a state provided “family support personnel.”

https://lynnwoodtimes.com/2020/05/12/governor-inslee-lays-out-statewide-contact-tracing-plan-for-covid-19/

FACEBOOK ZBANOWAŁ GRUPĘ ZRZESZAJĄCĄ PROTESTUJĄCYCH PRZECIWKO LOCKDOWNOWI W MICHIGAN

Facebook umieścił na czarnej liście stronę „Michiganders przeciwko nadmiernej kwarantannie”, grupę liczącą ponad 380 000 członków, która służyła jako centrum organizujące protesty przeciwko lockdownowi spowodowanemu przez chińskiego wirusa w Michigan.

Garrett Soldano, jeden z liderów protestów w Michigan, powiedział na swoim koncie na Twitterze, że grupa utworzyła nową stronę na Facebooku o nazwie „Stand Up Michigan”.

„Właśnie nas zamknęli. Mamy nową stronę. Oto nowy adres https://www.facebook.com/standupmi/ [już nie dostępna - 5k18a] ”powiedział Soldano w poście na Twitterze. „Zaproś zaproś zaproś. Nie zostaniemy zamknięci! ”

Soldano pojawi się dziś rano w lokalnym radiu, aby omówić cenzurę na Facebooku.

„Dzisiaj o 10:30 rano pójdę do radia Wood, aby porozmawiać o tym, jak Facebook próbuje cenzurować nasz ruch, zamykając naszą grupę ponad 385,000 Michiganderów”, powiedział Soldano. „Słuchaj o 1300 AM lub 106,9 FM, jeśli mieszkasz w West Michigan.”

Jak podał Breitbart News w zeszłym miesiącu, prezes Facebooka Mark Zuckerberg uważa protesty przeciwko blokadzie za „dezinformację” i zadeklarował zamiar usunięcia ich z platformy:

Prezes Facebooka potwierdził, że posty zostaną zbanowane dla George'a Stephanopoulosa z ABC w odcinku Good Morning America.

Stephanopoulos zapytał Zuckerberga, w jaki sposób firma radzi sobie „z faktem, że Facebook jest teraz wykorzystywany do organizowania wielu z tych protestów w celu przeciwstawienia się wytycznym dotyczącym dystansu społecznego w poszczególnych stanach. Jeśli ktoś próbuje zorganizować coś takiego, czy kwalifikuje się to jako szkodliwa dezinformacja? ”

„Klasyfikujemy to jako szkodliwe dezinformacje i usuwamy je”, potwierdził Zuckerberg, jednocześnie stwierdzając, że ważne jest, „aby ludzie mogli dyskutować o polityce”.

Nowa strona Soldano, Stand Up Michigan, zgromadziła jak dotąd ponad 27 000 obserwujących.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/05/13/facebook-blacklists-michigan-lockdown-protest-group/?fbclid=IwAR1kDLAVu0MBWB8ynDJIJ2y0N64NAokMBeC-Zw9qv4cNTejg1UD-qLP7iz4