Gov. Phil Murphy is pleading with New Jerseyans to answer the call from COVID-19 contact tracers to help slow the spread of the virus.

The governor on Monday said that “a whopping 74%” of people are not cooperating with contact tracers when they are called.

“This is not a witch hunt. We’re only trying to stop the spread of the virus,” Murphy said.

Murphy said that there are more than 30 contact tracers for every 100,000 New Jersey residents.

Amanda Sizer is just one of these tracers, working out of Camden County. Her job is to call those who are infected and find out where they have been and who they have seen so that those who were exposed to the virus can be notified.

"For the most part, when we call a positive case sometimes…they are willing to give up their own information,” Sizer says. “But then when it comes to giving up information about their close contacts, they are a little less forthcoming."

But the contact tracers say that there is no need to worry about divulging information.

“If they were at a house party with multiple people, if they had a family party at their house – I think they think that they’re going to be in trouble,” says Rianna DeLuca with the Camden County Health Department. “No one’s in trouble. We just want to stop the spread.”

Officials say that the phone number should come up as the state Health Department to distinguish it from a spam call.

“We will never ask for Social Security information. We will never ask for immigration status. We basically just confirm your date of birth to make sure we’re talking to the correct person, but no credit card information. Nothing like that,” says Sizer.

More information about the contact tracer program can be found on the state’s COVID-19 website.