ZeroCovid is the exit strategy.

ZeroCovid—otherwise known as the Green Zone Exit Strategy—is the strategy to save hundreds of thousands of lives and rebuild our battered economy. 

ZeroCovid aims to eliminate the virus in New York. This plan minimizes the risks from new virus variants, such as the South African and UK variants, that are spreading rapidly. Using all available resources to eliminate the virus has been shown to work in Australia, China, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Atlantic Canada.

Here are 4 steps that New York should take immediately:

1) Use the strongest possible action to prevent transmission

Take a 5-week pause on any unnecessary activities that bring people in contact with each other. Only essential services should be allowed to continue operating using maximal transmission prevention protocols (delivery, curbside pickup, wearing masks, social distancing, air purification, and other measures).

Prevent importing cases into and around New York through strict travel restrictions, including mandatory 14-day quarantines for visitors in designated areas. The smaller the local area protected by travel restrictions, the faster the process of getting to zero cases. Then, use a Green Zone Exit Strategy to open up protected areas slowly and progressively over a few weeks.

2) Rapidly test and isolate positive cases

Rapidly identify cases, isolate them, and provide care for them in designated facilities to protect family, friends, and neighbors. This prevents household transmission, while providing care for individuals who are sick with testing, contact tracing, and coordination by public health and medical organizations. Testing should include symptom-based mass-testing and other methods such as sewage testing.

3) Ensure a livelihood for all

Protect the livelihood of everyone in need of financial support. Vulnerable individuals should receive help—financial resources, employment assurance, mental health care, and other needs—from the community and the government. Regular check-ins with individuals and families by the community make rapid case identification and other forms of support possible.

4) Rapid Vaccination

Rapidly vaccinate high-risk individuals—with a focus on essential workers. We’ll accomplish this by focusing on disease severity (age and prior conditions) and essential employment needs (healthcare workers and other essential workers). Mass vaccination may help with transmission prevention and should be used as one of—but not the only—tool to do so.

If we take these steps, we can eliminate the virus much sooner than currently projected. If we deploy the ZeroCovid strategy well, we have an opportunity to control the virus, eliminate it neighborhood by neighborhood, and progressively eliminate it across New York. We don’t have to live with the virus anymore. Now is the time for New York to take swift, strong, and coordinated action.

ZeroCovid is within our reach.