TRENTON, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — A spike in COVID-19 cases in New Jersey has led to new statewide restrictions announced recently.
Gov. Phil Murphy has also been trying to increase contact tracing efforts.
"We are working on building capacity so that every county has at least 30 contact tracers on the job for every 100,000 residents," he said. "We have hit this benchmark in five counties plus the city of Newark."
Around 100 new contact tracers were added to the rotation recently. A dozen surge capacity tracers were also hired.
"Their sole job is to stop those who may have been exposed from COVID-19 from unintentionally spreading it to someone else," he explained.
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But the problem is too many people aren't responding when a contact tracer tries to get in touch with them.
Murphy said there's been failure to cooperate more than 60% of the time.
"Our contact tracers cannot do their jobs if you don't take the call," Murphy said. "Since the beginning, our contact tracers have been prepared to run into brick walls with some people who just weren't going to help out. But now we are seeing a failure to cooperate."
He wants to remind New Jerseyans contact tracers aren't trying to get you in trouble. If you went somewhere you weren't supposed to, they don’t care.
They just want to let you know you may have been exposed and should stay away from others.
"And we reserve the right to take more drastic action, and if we don't get better cooperation and better compliance, we will," added Murphy.
He didn't elaborate any further on what that action might entail.