A staggered, 4-part plan to reopen the US could start in May. Only 20% of the workforce would be back in offices by August.

• A staggered, 4-part plan for reopening the country, out from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, puts 20% of the workforce back in their offices by August.
• The plan also requires massive investments in testing, contact tracing, and social support for people who need to stay home when they're sick or have been exposed to the coronavirus.
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School could be in session by August, with one in five office workers back at their desks.

A new "roadmap to pandemic resilience" out from Harvard University would put 20% of the non-essential workforce back inside their offices by the end of the summer, as part of an overall plan to get the country safely moving again, even as more Americans might become infected with COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

The reopening plan would cost billions to perform.

It hinges on a well-oiled system of nationwide testing, contact tracing, and "supported isolation," what the Harvard plan refers to as "TTSI."

"The cost of such a testing and tracing, or TTSI, program—$50 to 300 billion over two years—is dwarfed by the economic cost of continued collective quarantine of $100 to 350 billion a month," the report authors write.

In addition to suggesting up to 20 million coronavirus test kits need to be available each day, the plan would require an army of contact tracers, more backup for the essential workforce, as well as better healthcare and financial support for people who must stay home when they become ill, or because they were exposed to someone with the coronavirus.

The authors argue that's far better than the current alternative.

"If we rely on collective social distancing alone to tide us over until a vaccine is available, the economy will be shut down on and off for 12 to 18 months, costing trillions of dollars," they write.

Here are the basics of their four-part plan, which could start as early as next month:

If you're curious to learn more about experts best-laid plans for reopening the country, read "How to reopen the US, according to Johns Hopkins and Harvard: Test 20 million people a day, hire an army of contact tracers, and expand healthcare coverage."