February 8, 2021 3:20 a.m.

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley teamed up with a group of Democratic colleagues last week to introduce legislation to create a federal contact tracing workforce.
A release said Representative Andy Levin of Michigan and Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Edward Markey of Minnesota joined Merkley to propose the Coronavirus Containment Corps. Act.
Merkley said “This deadly virus has killed more than 400,000 Americans and cost millions more their jobs and livelihoods. We need to do all we can to contain this virus, while also creating jobs that can be done safely”. He said that is why hiring more Americans to close the “…critical shortage of contact tracers is a commonsense win-win that must be included in the next coronavirus relief package”.
The release said contact tracers are more important than ever to the efforts to fully understand, and stop in real-time new variants of the virus. It said they will also be uniquely positioned to provide vaccine outreach support as more become available. Merkley said since the Great Recession, roughly 50,000 public health jobs, including contact tracing posts, have been lost and public health departments are “…severely underfunded”.
While the legislation was introduced as a standalone bill, the lawmakers are calling for it to be included in the upcoming COVID-19 response package from Congress.