ANNAPOLIS, Md. — You’ve contracted COVID-19 from someone, somewhere and you may have infected someone else.
Contact tracers want to know about it.
“Then that’s what you gotta do,” said Gray Sheridan of Baltimore. “It sucks. It’s going to be unpleasant, but if it’s more important than killing the people around you.”
But apparently, it’s not that easy.
The state has 1,400 tracers who can track a thousand cases and 10,000 cases per day, but Governor Larry Hogan says more people, than not ignore their calls.
“Our problem is that so many people refuse to give the information. It’s like half the people? A little more than half that we contact---they don’t want to participate,” said Hogan. “This is not Big Brother. We’re not trying to track you. We’re trying to stop the virus and stop you from infecting people you come into contact with.”
Along with testing, personal protective equipment and insuring the state has enough hospital beds, contract tracing is considered one of the keys to limit the virus’ spread, and Maryland has added a contact tracing app to try to get a better handle on it.
“We’ve already had a million people, a million in a week go on to utilize that app so some people are really concerned and want to go on and protect themselves, but there are an awful lot of people saying, ‘I’m not doing that’, and that’s really the issue,” said Hogan.
An issue, much like hand washing, face masks and social distancing, which relies upon you to help others around you.
“Since that’s what the state’s asking, I just think it would be irresponsible not to cooperate,” said Sheridan.
Investigators are trying to insure people who are infected they will never ask for a Social Security number, bank information or any personal information not related to COVID-19.
