Contact tracers who will be calling on behalf of state departments of health are being hired in the hundreds of thousands, with hiring “need” estimates going up to as much as 300,000. So far, 11,000 are already on the job across the U.S., contacting people they’ve determined have come in close contact with someone infected with COVID-19.
Although the calls are not the same as the apps Google and Apple are working on, they still rely on tracking down exposures to the virus. The jobs reportedly pay $17 to $25 an hour.
In other news, as of Monday, May 18, 2020, nearly 152,000 people had already enrolled in a free, five-hour video course offered by Johns Hopkins University on how to be a COVID-19 contact tracer.
SOURCES:
The New York Times May 18, 2020
Johns Hopkins University May 18, 2020