New Jersey Expands COVID-19 Call Center Options (Wednesday, March 18, 2020)

Governor Phil Murphy, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, the New Jersey Department of Health, and the United Ways of New Jersey announced today that NJ 211 has been activated to help handle COVID-19 related calls from New Jersey residents.

All residents with questions or concerns about COVID-19 and resources available to them can call 2-1-1. NJ 211 is New Jersey’s statewide, comprehensive, information and referral service operated by United Ways of New Jersey.

Residents call also text NJCOVID to 898-211 to receive text information and stay informed. To receive live text assistance, residents can text their zip code to 898-211.

These enhancements to 211 will supplement, rather than replace, the existing COVID-19 hotline, operated by the New Jersey Poison Control Center. State residents with questions about COVID-19 illness can continue to call the previously shared numbers for the COVID-19 hotline, but they can also call 211 to get answers about their COVID-19 questions.

Additionally, the Department of Health has a COVID-19 website with resources including CDC updates, guidance for schools, colleges, businesses, long-term care facilities, health care professionals and public health professionals. The website is available at https://nj.gov/health/coronavirus.

Local health departments, health care providers, and medical facility staff should continue to contact the Communicable Disease Service at the New Jersey Department of Health with COVID-19 questions.

About NJ 2-1-1
The statewide information and referral service began in 2002 when the United Ways of New Jersey spearheaded efforts to give people-in-need an easy way to find health and human services by encouraging the Board of Public Utilities to designate the NJ 2-1-1 Partnership as the sole administrator of the three digit dialing code. Statewide coverage began in 2005. In 2017 alone, the NJ 2-1-1 Partnership provided resource assistance to over 455,000 people who called 2-1-1 or visited our website. With roughly 3,000 agencies in the organization’s resource database and over 10,000 programs and services listed, NJ 2-1-1 provides the public with front door access to nonprofit, government and faith-based services, as well as disaster response information.