Michael Bloomberg is dedicating $10 million to a coronavirus contact tracing program

Kathryn Krawczyk

April 22, 2020 at 1:52 PM·1 min read

Michael Bloomberg is finally resurfacing after his failed presidential bid.

The billionaire business owner and former New York City mayor will dedicate "upwards of $10 million" to a COVID-19 contact tracing program, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced Wednesday. The program is aimed at tracing where people have been and who they've come in contact with in case they later test positive for coronavirus, and Bloomberg will design the whole thing.

New York state has partnered with New Jersey and Connecticut to help track where coronavirus-positive people go and warn people of potential exposure to the virus. Bloomberg "will design the program, design the training," and "he's going to make a financial contribution," Cuomo said. Johns Hopkins University and public health nonprofit Vital Strategies will also work on the project. In addition to Bloomberg's $10 million, the state has $1.3 billion to out toward contact tracing, Cuomo added.

Apple and Google recently announced a rare partnership to develop a contact tracing program embedded in their customers' phones. Their program would allow people to opt in to have their location privately tracked, and if they test positive for COVID-19, will be able to alert anyone they'd been around.

Fundraising numbers released Monday showed Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion on his three-month-long presidential run, which is shaping up to have been even shorter than the COVID-19 pandemic.