Photo by CDC from Pexels
New York State has partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Vital Strategies to create the NYS Contact Tracing Program, a nation-leading initiative to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and make it safer to begin to return to normal again.
Here's how it works:
COVID Contact tracer
If you test positive, a COVID Contact Tracer will connect you with the support and resources you may need to quarantine, such as help getting medical care, child care, groceries or household supplies. The Tracer will work with you to identify anyone you've been in contact with over the past 14 days to trace and contain the spread of the virus.
Those contacts will in turn hear from a Tracer via phone and text.
People who have come in close contact with someone who is positive are asked to stay home and limit their contact with others. By staying home during this time, IF you become sick yourself, you won't have infected other people. That's how we stop the spread. In the meantime, testing, medical and quarantine support will be arranged.
Privacy
Privacy is a top priority of the Contact Tracing Program. The program will not release your name to anyone.
Your information is strictly confidential and will be treated as a private medical record.
A contact tracer will never ask for your Social Security Number, bank or credit card numbers or any other financial information.
'NYS Contact Tracing'
Note that if you get a call from a Tracer, your caller ID will in most cases say "NYS Contact Tracing" (518-387-9993). If you get a call, PLEASE answer the phone. Answering the phone will keep your loved ones and community safe and allows us to keep NY moving forward, according to the information released by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.
More information can be found at coronavirus.health.ny.gov/new-york-state-contact-tracing.