Washington state will implement a rapid-response contact tracing workforce next month as part of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Jay Inslee Jay Robert InsleeBarr asked prosecutors to explore charging Seattle mayor over protest zone: report Bottom line Oregon senator says Trump's blame on 'forest management' for wildfires is 'just a big and devastating lie' MORE (D) said Tuesday.

"We expect roughly 1,500 workers focused solely on contact tracing by the second week of May," Inslee said in a televised speech Tuesday, according to NPR. "This workforce will be rapid-response, something like a fire brigade."

There are about 700 contact tracers available now who are state and local health employees, but more will be hired and the state will draw 500 additional tracers from the National Guard, NPR reports.

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Washington was one of the first states in the U.S. to be hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.

Washington reported 12,494 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 692 deaths due to the disease as of Wednesday.

Public health experts have said contact tracers, trained workers who can get in touch with infected patients and find out who else they may have been in contact with, are a critical step needed to prevent another surge in COVID-19 infections as officials weigh lifting social distancing restrictions to open state economies.

"We're now needing to scale up contact tracing," former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden told NPR. "Ten or one hundred-fold more. It needs to be extremely proactive and complete."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom Gavin NewsomTrump dismisses climate change role in fires, says Newsom needs to manage forest better Evacuations ordered in California desert communities as wildfires burn Wildfire lectures from America's instructor-in-chief MORE (D) said Wednesday the state is planning to train up to 10,000 contact tracers.

Last week Newsom said increased testing and contact tracing was one of six indicators that would drive the state’s decision to gradually modify portions of the stay-at-home-order.