The US's contact-tracing system is broken. Testing delays set it up for failure.

AP Photo/Russ Bynum

• Contact-tracing efforts in the US have been hampered by testing delays and staff shortages.
• As a result, many states missed their window to catch new coronavirus cases before outbreaks ballooned.
• The virus has now spread beyond the capacity of contact tracing, though public-health experts say it's still a useful tool. 
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An army of 100,000 contact tracers. That was the recommendation researchers at Johns Hopkins University came up with for the US in April.

"If we can find nearly every case, and trace the contacts of each case, it will be possible, in time, to relax the bluntest approaches: the extreme social distancing measures, such as stay at home orders," they wrote in a report.

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• Here's a running list of countries barring American tourists from entering as the US coronavirus outbreak surges to new heights

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