This article discusses proposals by separate groups of members of Congress to fund the hiring of thousands of people to conduct coronavirus-related contact tracing.

This week, two separate proposals were released aimed toward creating a workforce to undertake the critical “social epidemiology” contact tracing efforts needed to safely move communities toward reopening.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Representative Andy Levin (MI) introduced a proposal that would require the CDC develop a 30-day plan to hire, deploy, and train a “containment corps” to investigate coronavirus cases and perform contact tracing.

According to the article, the bill would

require the CDC to consult with states and localities and determine how many individuals they would need to work as case investigators or to perform contact tracing, the process of finding people who have been in contact with infected individuals and informing them so they can quarantine themselves.

It would also require the CDC to provide grants to local health departments to carry out the investigations and contact tracing, with additional funding given based on population.

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) and Michael Bennett (CO) released a proposal earlier in the week to provide $55 billion annually “to hire hundreds of thousands of people to carry out testing, contact tracing and eventually vaccinating to fight the coronavirus.”