Watch: Gov. Charlie Baker touts role of contact tracing in coronavirus battle on ‘Face the Nation’

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker appeared on ABC’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, where he talked about the multi-state pact to eventually coordinate a reopening of the economy, the need for more federal funds to weather the coronavirus pandemic crisis, and why Massachusetts is aggressively pursuing a contact tracing initiative.

With contact tracing, when a person tests positive for coronavirus, a public health official gathers information from the individual about who else they have come into contact with and potentially infected. Public health officials then attempt to contact those people, known as “close contacts,” to let them know they may have been exposed and need to self-quarantine or get themselves tested.

“The goal here is to push back on the virus, the same way they did in South Korea, to contain it, understand where it is, and control it,” Baker told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan Sunday. “And I think it’s going to be critical for every state that wants to get ‘open’ and back to something like a new normal to put some kind of mechanism like this in place.”

Watch the governor’s appearance below: