Burlington County Covid contact tracing struggles as cases increase
MOUNT HOLLY — Citing a recent uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases in Burlington County and across New Jersey, local officials are urging residents to cooperate with contact tracing efforts.
Resistance to contact tracing is becoming "more and more of a problem," according to Health Department Director Dr. Herb Conaway.
“We’ve started to face some resistance, either from people not accepting calls or refusing to divulge their contacts,” Conaway said last week. “Some of the resistance is from young people who don’t want to disclose friends they may have been socializing with, but in some cases it’s also older adults who don’t want to be bothered or allow their teenage children to be interviewed.
"These are people who need to be notified and told to get tested and quarantine," he said.
State Department of Health data shows contact tracers were unable to investigate nearly 33% of new positive coronavirus cases across the state during the week of July 26, including about 24% of Burlington County’s new cases.
Contact tracing is critical in helping health officials track and slow the spread of COVID-19, according to Freeholder Dan O’Connell, who is the board’s liaison to the Health Department.
Contact tracing "can’t work if our residents don’t accept the phone call or refuse to cooperate with tracing efforts,” O’Connell said in a news release. “Help us to help you by communicating with the contact tracers.”
According to the county, tracers will call people who either tested positive for COVID-19 or who recently spent time in close contact with someone who tested positive. They will seek information about others who may have been in close contact and can also help refer people to available COVID-19 testing resources and other assistance.
Burlington County has nine full-time staffers working on contact tracing and 10 volunteers and Rutgers University students. An additional 10 volunteers are in training and are expected to begin tracing cases soon, according to Health Department Director Dr. Herb Conaway.
The additional tracers are expected to help with Burlington County’s rising caseload of positive COVID-19 cases, which have risen in recent weeks from an average of 15 a day to about 27 new cases a day, Conaway said.
“This virus does not care about your age, where you live or what you do for a living. It just does everything it can to replicate itself, and it’s up to all of us to counteract that,” Conaway said. “It’s entirely in our hands, so it’s time to dig deep and make sure we all do what’s required to prevent this disease from spreading further.”
Contact tracers will not ask for social security numbers, financial information or immigration status, Conaway noted. He encouraged people to be alert for potential scammers.
Residents with any doubts about the legitimacy of a contact tracer phone call can hang up and contact the county health department.
Information residents provide will remain confidential and will not be used for law enforcement, according to the county.
In addition to cooperating with contact tracers, Conaway said he supports Congressman Andy Kim’s recent call for a nationwide standard for all COVID-19 diagnostic test results to be returned within 72 hours.
“We’ve seen how delays in the return of test results can cause the virus to unknowingly be spread,” Conaway said.
County officials urged residents to wear masks when in public and to strictly adhere to social distancing rules and get tested, particularly if they attended a large gathering or traveled to a location on New Jersey’s quarantine list.