Tracking the virus may require 300,000 workers. We're nowhere close

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https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/tracking-coronavirus-workforce-does-not-exist-197622
 

Before the pandemic, state and local health departments had fewer than 2,000 workers carrying out contact tracing — the detailed investigatory work to track and stop outbreaks of everything from syphilis to measles. The real number needed could be somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000
 

Learning contact tracing is not easy,” said Tom Frieden, the former CDC director and New York City health commissioner. “Training is very important. Listening to someone, understanding their concerns, helping them remember.”

The National Association of State and Territorial Health Organizations estimates that the country may need to hire as many as 100,000 such "disease intervention specialists" at a cost of $3.6 billion. Frieden thinks the number could be as high as 300,000.
 

The situation is particularly tough in states whose health departments have seen funding and staff slashed in recent years. In the last decade alone, local health departments have shed more than 55,000 jobs.