New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) on Monday lamented that the majority of New Jersey residents are not cooperating with the state’s contact tracing efforts, assuring them that it is “not a witch hunt.”
“We now have approximately 3,000 contact tracers on the ground. Nearly 70% of individuals refuse to cooperate with our contact tracers,” Murphy said in a Monday update.
“This is not a witch hunt. This is about protecting you, your loved ones, and your community. Take the call,” he added:
Murphy, who came under fire when individuals spotted him dining out with his family after retightening restrictions the Garden State, said on Sunday that a statewide lockdown was “still on the table.”
“You hate like heck to even have to consider that, and God willing, we won’t have to,” he said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.
He continued:
You hate like heck to even have to consider that, and God willing, we won’t have to. I tell you what would really make a difference here, a big federal stimulus sooner than later with a lifeline to small businesses, restaurants, folks who are unemployed. That would be a game-changer. Not just in their lives and in their prospects, but it gives us more degrees of freedom in terms of dealing with the virus. So it’s on the table in terms of a shutdown. I don’t anticipate it, and I sure as heck don’t want to go that route but boy, federal stimulus would give us a lot more ammunition to do a lot more things right now.”
Murphy announced 4,661 new positive cases of the virus for 341,910 cumulative cases since the start of the pandemic:
A Harvard-run database, TrackTheRecovery.org, found that 31.2 percent of businesses remained closed in New Jersey this year following the shutdowns and restrictions spurred by the pandemic.
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