What to Know
- Although New Jersey continues to build out the capabilities of its community contact tracing corps, compliance with contact tracers stands at around 26 percent, the governor announced.
- During his coronavirus press briefing Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy said that the state now has more than 30 contact tracers per every 100,000 residents statewide in all but three counties -- Bergen, Camden and Monmouth.
- "The rate of non-cooperation with our contact tracers is now up to a whopping 74 percent of cases. Quite frankly, this is unacceptable, and we need folks to turn that around," Murphy said.
Although New Jersey continues to build out the capabilities of its community contact tracing corps, compliance with contact tracers stands at around 26 percent, the governor announced.
During his coronavirus press briefing Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy said that the state now has more than 30 contact tracers per every 100,000 residents statewide in all but three counties -- Bergen, Camden and Monmouth.
Additionally, as New Jersey's contact tracing corps continues to grow, the state has identified the need for bilingual contact tracers.
"We have identified an urgent need for contact tracers with Spanish language proficiency," Murphy said, adding the state is "currently engaged in filling that need."
While New Jersey continues to focus on its contact tracing efforts, the rate of compliance among those reached by the corps is dismal.
"The rate of non-cooperation with our contact tracers is now up to a whopping 74 percent of cases. Quite frankly, this is unacceptable, and we need folks to turn that around," Murphy said.
According to the governor, "it’s extremely critical for contact tracers to get in touch with close contacts of those who test positive to help us stop the spread of this virus. You may think that you may just call your contacts yourself, but this is a task that is best left to a trained public health professional…who can answer questions about access to testing and social support that they may need to safely quarantine or isolate."
Murphy urged cooperation among the public while stressing that "contact tracers are not out on a witch hunt."
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"[Contact tracers] are only concerned with stopping the spread of this virus. We urge you please work with our contact tracers and do your part to end this pandemic. The more people who cooperate, the sooner we can slow the spread and crush the curb, the sooner we can emerge from this pandemic," he said.
