Two congressional Democrats are calling for a “coronavirus containment corps” to aid state and local health officials in tracing potential victims.
The proposal comes from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan, according to NBC News.
The two lawmakers represent states having some of the highest number of cases of coronavirus. Both cited a lack of coordinated national effort on contact tracing.
Warren and Levin are pushing the proposal that would mandate the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to put together a plan to hire, train and deploy people to help health officials in contact tracing.
Their plan would include Labor Department funding for state and local workforce agencies. Those agencies would then help unemployed individuals find jobs as contact tracers, according to the network news.
"To confront a national crisis, we need a proactive nationwide strategy — and the Trump administration is failing to come up with one," Warren said.
She added: “We need a national contact tracing program that will stop the virus in its tracks, instead of us perpetually chasing it from behind.”
Donald Herring, Warren's oldest brother, died on Tuesday night about three weeks after testing positive for coronavirus, The Boston Globe reported.
Meanwhile, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he is teaming up with Connecticut and New Jersey to deploy a “contact tracing army” with help from billionaire Mike Bloomberg.
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