New Jersey officials step up contact tracing with 1,600 more tracers being trained

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey officials vow to step up contact tracing for new positive cases of coronavirus before the end of the month. 

At his daily briefing Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy said 900 tracers are already out on the streets, and 1,600 more are being trained.

“As we begin Stage Two of our restart on Monday, new contact tracers will be recruited and trained. As more businesses come back online the following week, so too will more contact tracers. Each step of our restart will be accompanied by the onboarding of new contact tracers,” Murphy said. 

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All told, more than 4,000 contact tracers could be hired. 

One concern being met head on is the skepticism some people might have if a tracer calls on them. 

Murphy went to great lengths to assure people that they’ll only seek necessary data, it’ll be secured and not used for any other purpose like tracking their movements or checking immigration status. 

Four Pillars of New Jersey’s Contact Tracing Program:☑️Consent☑️Transparency☑️Security☑️Limits pic.twitter.com/PzV4gOQWHw

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) June 10, 2020

The governor insisted it’s vital for people to cooperate with tracers both to protect themselves and to give the state an accurate assessment on the spread of the virus.

With 611 new positive coronavirus cases, the state now reports a total of 165,346 cases and 12,377 coronavirus-related fatalities.