Last week, Hopewell Township Committee member Julie Blake sat down, over Zoom, with Stephanie Carey, the Health officer for all the municipalities in the Hopewell Valley, to ask some questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the second of four videos they produced. The video was posted by Hopewell Township; transcript by MercerMe.
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Blake: Hi, I’m Julie Blake with the Hopewell Township Committee and I’m here with Stephanie Carey to talk to you today about contact tracing
We have been in the process of hiring more contact tracers, so it is possible that you might be contacted by one of our contact tracers or somebody from the State to ask about your contact with somebody who has tested positive for COVID-19. So, I’m going to ask Stephanie today to let us know what questions they might ask and what they won’t ask. We certainly don’t want anyone to be the victim of fraud; there are some bad apples. So, Stephanie, can you give us some idea of what they’ll be asking?
Carey: Thanks for asking. The job of a contact tracer is to interview people who have been exposed or potentially exposed to COVID-19 to see who else they might have been in contact with so that people can isolate or self-quarantine to stop the further spread of the disease.
Contact tracers may ask you about where you have been in the previous week. A contact tracer may ask who else is in your household. Contact tracers will never ask you for banking information, social security information, tell you that there is a fee associated with your contact tracing, or threaten to arrest you.
Blake: Ok I really appreciate that. Go ahead, I’m sorry
Carey: Contact tracers are an important tool in fighting the spread of the disease. For everybody to be able to go back to work, we have to be able to identify who may be at risk of spreading the disease so they can practice self-quarantine and the rest of us can get back to work. So, we appreciate your returning the calls of our contact tracing team and helping cooperate with us to better identify the best way we can keep our community safe.
Blake: Right. We are asking for everyone to be good players in this and protect one another, we appreciate it. Obviously, we are going to continue to hire contact tracers, so if people have a medical backgrounds or experience in doing things like this please send your resume on to the administrator in Hopewell Township.
Thank you so much and I will see you very, very soon.
