Murphy can't figure out why 60% of new jerseyans won't answer his covid-19 contact tracer phone calls

TRENTON, NJ – Few people in New Jersey are answering their phone when Phil Murphy’s army of almost 2,000 contract tracers make their calls and even fewer are giving them information if they happen to get caught off guard. Murphy said this apathy towards contact tracing is vital to keep New jersey safe. In a state of 8,000,000 people 260,000 have downloaded the Murphy contact tracing COVID-19 to their phones, another sore spot for the governor.

“One plan that we have had in place and in motion is our community contact tracing corps, which currently includes a total of 1,906 contact tracers statewide. That’s an average of more than 21 per 100,000 residents in each county,” Murphy said. “Over the last reporting period, which was October 10^th to October 17^th, our tracers were able to follow up in more than two-thirds of cases, and 55% of cases were followed up within that crucial first 24 hours. We do, however, continue to have challenges in getting those our contact tracers speak with to provide contacts for follow up, as 58% of those contacted during this period refused to cooperate with our contact tracers.”

Murphy urged residents to take the call…because, after all, they are from the government and here to help you.

“Come on, folks. Again, I urge everyone to take the call and cooperate with our contact tracers. Nobody is on a witch hunt and no one has any concern other than protecting your health, your family’s health and your community’s health, period,” Murphy said.

Murphy also said to go ahead and download that new app he rolled out that will track your movement and let you know if you come into contact with somebody who has or had COVID-19.

“And I further encourage you to download our COVID Alert NJ smartphone app and add your phone to our fight against COVID-19. So far, the app has been downloaded more than 260,000 times and by the way, each new download is another way for us to trace COVID-19 and keep our community safe. COVID Alert NJ is available for download from both the Apple App and Google Play stores,” he added.

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