The city's contact-tracing program, a critical initiative to help curb the coronavirus, is well underway, hiring 3,000 disease detectives and case monitors recently. 

Dr. Ted Long, executive director of the city's test and trace corps, says the effort has been able to reach 97% of New Yorkers it has a phone number for.

Long says contact tracers are themselves members of the communities they’re calling, helping people feel more comfortable with the process.

“Trust is being built because this is New Yorkers taking care of other New Yorkers,” he said.

Long joined Mornings On 1 via Skype.