BLOOMFIELD, NJ -- The Bloomfield Health and Human Services Department has outlined step by step what the contact tracing process entails for residents that test positive for COVID-19. The purpose of contact tracing, is to retrace a person’s steps leading up to the positive diagnosis and to reach out to all people that may have been exposed to them.
“Making sure that we quickly identify positive cases in our community and figure out who those people were in contact with is key for us to flatten the curve,” said Mayor Michael Venezia. “That is why starting Thursday, we will begin to test residents free of charge at various locations in town and anyone that does test positive will be interviewed right away.”
When a person tests positive for COVID-19, the Public Health Department will contact that person by phone to begin the contact tracing interview process. The interview in total should take between 10-15 minutes.
“The contact tracing process combined with increased testing is the best way for us to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Bloomfield,” said Health Director Karen Lore. “The interview does not take much time and we ask that any residents that test positive cooperate with our tracers.”
All information is kept confidential and residents are strongly encouraged to share information to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 cases in the community. Citizenship information will not be discussed as part of the interview process.
To prevent possible scams, residents should be aware that they will never be asked for a social security number or bank information. The Bloomfield nursing and investigation team will always identify themselves by name and explain that they are calling from the Bloomfield Department of Health and Human Services. Anyone that suspects someone is attempting to scam them should contact the Bloomfield Police Department’s non-emergency number at 973-680-4141.
For more information about contact tracing, please visit www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/principles-contact-tracing.html. If you are interested in becoming a contact tracer, visit https://covid19.nj.gov/forms/tracer.